Policy Interventions

Policy interventions provide one avenue for addressing the public health impacts of wasted food. This section will focus on three areas of policy — liability protections, tax incentives, and date labels — that exemplify how laws and regulations can mitigate barriers to food waste reduction and support increased food donation. The Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic is a national leader in tracking these policies and recommending best practices for future policy development to address food waste.¹⁴

At the federal level, several policies address barriers to food donation. In 1996, Congress passed the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act (Emerson Act) to address concerns about liability among potential food donors.¹⁵ The Emerson Act provides civil and criminal liability protection to food donors and nonprofit food recovery organizations.¹⁶ To receive protection, a donor must donate apparently wholesome food in good faith to a nonprofit that distributes the food to needy individuals for free.¹⁷

Another barrier to food donation is cost—the costs of harvesting, transporting, packaging, and storing food for donation can be significant. Tax incentives can help offset these costs and encourage food donation. At the federal level, businesses that donate food to charitable nonprofits can receive a general charitable deduction.¹⁸ In 1976, recognizing that the general deduction was insufficient to offset the costs of food donation, Congress created an enhanced deduction for food donations, which allows some businesses to claim a larger deduction for qualifying donations.¹⁹ This deduction was permanently extended to all businesses in December 2015.²⁰

The Emerson Act and the federal enhanced deduction represent important steps to support food donation. However, neither policy fully reflects the landscape of innovative food rescue models that has emerged in recent years. For example, for a donor to receive Emerson Act protection or be eligible for the federal enhanced deduction, the nonprofit food recovery organization that distributes the donated food must not charge recipients for the food.²¹ This limitation creates a deterrent for food recovery organizations such as social supermarkets, which sell food at a reduced price in low-income areas.²² These innovative organizations offer benefits; they can be more financially sustainable than traditional models and can serve a broad range of food insecure clients. Several states have sought to address these limitations in federal law by adopting state laws that provide liability protection for a broader range of food donation practices, and by creating state-level tax incentives that fill gaps where the federal deductions do not provide sufficient incentive.²³

Confusion over date labels on food products is another barrier to food waste reduction, and the current regulatory system exacerbates this barrier. Date labels are not regulated at the federal level.²⁴ In the absence of federal regulation, states have adopted a variety of laws regulating date labeling on food products, including laws that prohibit or restrict the sale or donation of past-date food.²⁵ These restrictions unnecessarily inhibit donation because date labels generally do not communicate food safety, but rather indicate how long food will be at its peak quality.^{Reference Labuza and Szybist26} Yet, 84% of consumers report discarding food past the labeled date due to safety concerns.^{Reference Rice, Leib, Neff, Spiker, Schklair and Greenberg27} Standardizing date labels through federal legislation or regulation represents an opportunity to reduce food waste through policy. A report by ReFED, a collaboration of public and private stakeholders, identified standardizing date labels as the most cost-effective solution to food waste, with the potential to divert 398,000 tons of food waste annually.²⁸

Business Opportunities

In addition to government policy interventions, there are opportunities for private business to address food waste. In the United States, hundreds of for-profit and non-profit organizations work to prevent food waste and to recover surplus food for human consumption.²⁹ The company Hungry Harvest is an excellent example of social entrepreneurship focused on addressing food waste and its public health challenges. Since its formation in 2014, Hungry Harvest has rescued over 10 million pounds of produce that does not meet traditional cosmetic standards as well as surplus produce that farmers cannot find a buyer for.³⁰ The company connects a broad spectrum of consumers with this nutritious food. First, subscribers can contract for weekly delivery of customizable boxes of rescued produce at below grocery store prices. Hungry Harvest also runs Produce in a Snap, a program that sets up fresh produce markets at community centers and public schools in vulnerable communities. These markets allow participants in the Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program (SNAP) to buy nutritious rescued produce at a considerable discount, an estimated 50% savings over grocery store prices.³¹ Third, in partnership with health care providers and institutions, Hungry Harvest targets diet-related illness with a produce prescription program known as HarvestRX. Through funding from wellness organizations, this intervention provides fresh, rescued produce to program participants free of charge.³² And finally, Hungry Harvest donates rescued produce to hunger charities to help feed vulnerable Americans. Supporting the efforts of organizations like Hungry Harvest and the policy interventions discussed above are effective ways to combat food waste.