Poland is improving its fight against food waste
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has prepared an amendment to the law on not wasting food, which is effective from 2019. The law aims to introduce such regulations and rules so that - in a nutshell - food, instead of going into the bin, goes to social organizations that will donate it to those in need. These include food banks.
Every second, 184 loaves of bread are wasted in Poland. And every year, every Pole throws away, on average, about 250 kg of food worth about PLN 3,500 PLN (780 EUR) - said Michał Kołodziejczak, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development in Poland, during a press conference on the amendment to the Act on Non-Waste of Food.
Poland is improving its fight against food waste. The reason is the scale of the waste - 184 loaves of bread are wasted every second in Poland.
The change in the rules will make it possible to more effectively protect food from going to waste, on the one hand, and to manage and use it to help those most in need, on the other.
The law clarifies the definitions: food waste and food vendors. A food vendor is not only a chain of shops, but any shop of more than 250 m2. Under the new legislation, there will be an increased charge for each shop of this size for each ton of food wasted.
According to information provided by Kolodziejczak, until now, food that was past its expiry date was considered waste, and the fee for shops for discarding such was PLN 100 per ton (€22.5). The amendment to the law provides for an increase in this value.
The Ministry proposes that every shop with an area of more than 250 m2 should pay at least PLN 500 (EUR 112) per ton of discarded food. In addition, every shop over 250 m2 will have to have a contract with an organization to collect the food. A chain with 3,000 shops of this size or larger will therefore have to have 3,000 contracts signed.
Source: MRiRW, Farmer.pl