Allow restaurant operators to deduct a flat fee per pound of food waste that is properly maintained and donated to local food banks and shelters. (I.E. a 5 gallon of soup that has been on a warmer all day and isn’t okay for resale but the food quality hasn’t diminished enough to be wasted)
Credit can be calculated based off of a percentage of their aggregate food cost percentage for the menu.
It will save millions of pounds of food from going to our landfills, feed millions of Americans who are starving & incentivize business owners to follow through and donate without “fear of being sued” for serving something that could get someone sick.
This can also cause operators to be more profitable in their businesses & thus stimulating local economies because of having additional funds.
This would be a good idea if the food was clean. Meaning not only is it not highly processed and chemicalized junk, but also, and more importantly, that it was handled correctly by the people around it. I spent a decent number of years in the restaurant industry, while it is a requirement for food to be handled a certain way, not everyone cared if it was done appropriately and bosses can’t be everywhere all the time. Unfortunately, the few that care less mess it up for everyone else.
There are secondary options here as well… some passed-their-use-by-date foods can safely be fed to livestock. Hogs, chickens and other poultry, cows can and will eat all sorts of past-prime produce and some prepared foods. Many other things can be composted (including meats, if done correctly) and could be an option for aggricultural operations, community gardens, or farm/garden supply.
This could be expanded to animal food as well. Stores who load their dumpsters with animal food/feed because it’s about to expire or the manufacturer just changed the packaging, could be incentivized to donate the items instead to local shelters/ rescues/ animal sanctuaries , communities etc with a bigger tax break of some sort. Keeping millions of tons of unnecessary trash out of landfills.
We need to stop giving tax incentives for throwing useable items like these away…. Companies are destroying and/or throwing out products on purpose to be able to write them off as a total loss, versus donating because it makes their bottom line more attractive.
Penalties could help curb these wasteful practices, but you catch more flies with honey so if the items are useable and they need them off their shelves, encourage them to do the right thing and donate the items and propose a more attractive percentage back in tax breaks than is currently used for donations.
If we had an environment section , this could extend to all companies , for a lot of products other than foods… there are plenty of people in shelters or who are just struggling and in need in our country that could use the blankets , clothes , shoes and food these stores throw away.
Only useable or still edible items, no recalled items. Foods past their ‘best by’ date, depending on type could still be used with personal discretion or for livestock feed.
Just my thoughts on this, I’m sure others have similar ideas .