Spain tries to reduce food waste with law

The law requires restaurants to offer and provide customers with the option of taking leftovers home free of charge, preferably in recyclable packaging.

It also requires grocery stores to sell products that are only imperfect and that comply with health regulations, and to encourage the purchase of products that are close to their expiration date with discounts. The remaining products are then offered to social organizations or, if they are no longer suitable for human consumption, to be used as animal feed or biofuel.

According to the law, all actors in the food chain, i.e. companies involved in production, processing, food distribution and hospitality, must develop loss and waste prevention plans.

Ignacio García Magarzo, general director of the Asedas distributors’ association, explained to the daily newspaper El País:

“this type of plan diagnoses the reasons for the waste and seeks technically, environmentally and economically viable alternatives to reduce it, with periodic control measures”.

The law establishes fines ranging from one thousand euros to one hundred thousand euros for companies that do not comply with the legal obligations.

The law also requires the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food to draw up a food loss and waste control plan, as a kind of roadmap, which includes the general objectives and priorities of the control tasks.