This week’s legislation, said Italy’s Agriculture Minister Maurizio Martina, is “one of the most attractive and concrete legacies of Milan’s 2015 Expo”, which had made curbing food waste and hunger worldwide one of its primary themes.
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The legislation passed through Italy’s senate with a resounding majority – 161 senators voted in favour, with just two against, and 16 abstentions. According to government estimates, the country now wastes about five million tons of food every year.
Consumers who were shopping in supermarkets and vegetables shops on Friday sounded quite favourably impressed.
The bill could prevent almost 400,000 tons of food from going to waste each year if it passes, according to the nonprofit ReFED. A set of bills known as the Food Recovery Act, introduced in 2015, offers a set of steps to reduce food waste on the farm, in stores, institutions, and at home.
Overall, some 94 kg are wasted per capita on average, some 53 percent of which originates from the food chain and 47 percent from the families, the study said.
In America, lawmakers have made recent attempts to tackle the food waste problem, too.
Global figures are also alarming. There, the government banned supermarkets from throwing away or spoiling unsold food.
“This is one of the most lovely and tangible legacies of the Milan Expo 2015”, Italian Agriculture Minister Maurizio Martina commented on the law after its definitive approval.
The law raises the amount that can be donated from €5,000 to €15,000 and will finance research into new products such as recyclable packaging that prevents spoilage in transit. Restaurants will now be required to make such bags available, which the non-profit Good Meal says could save up to seven million meals every day. Specifically, the law removes regulations for companies trying to donate extra food.
The measures include farmers being able to donate unsold produce without incurring costs, companies being able to record donations by completing a simple monthly form and will pay less waste tax the more they donate. There will be no sanction for those giving away food past its sell-by date.
As reported by the Italian authorities, food waste costs more than €12bn (£10bn; $13.4bn) per year, some reports even suggesting that it could amount to more than 1% of their GDP. They are now obliged by law to donate any unsold or unwanted foodstuffs to charities and food banks. The measures also encourage Italians to take restaurant leftovers home in doggy bags (something Italians, apparently, are loath to do).
The practice has never been common among families dining out in Italy.
Italy has taken a “non-punitive” approach to the issue, with no penalties for those who do not want to donate, unlikely similar provisions in other countries in Europe, Italian analysts highlighted.
Doggy bags are, of course, pretty popular in the USA, but many Europeans have yet to fully embrace them; France recently passed a law requiring restaurants to give doggy bags to diners who ask for them.
So tell me more about the specific measures?
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“For once, we will be awarded for making something useful, and not punished for doing nothing”.
