The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has prepared an amendment to the act on non-waste of food, which has been in force since 2019.
Food should not go to the trash, but to social organizations
As Deputy Minister Kołodziejczak said during the conference, the aim of the act is to introduce such provisions and principles that – in short – food goes to social organizations instead of being thrown into the trash, which will distribute it to those in need. These include: food banks.
– This is a quick amendment to the act, which we will consult widely. We are also preparing further changes because we want to minimize food waste at every stage, including food distribution. I am very grateful to everyone involved in amending this act, said Deputy Minister Michał Kołodziejczak.
Beata Ciepła, President of the Management Board of the Federation of Polish Food Banks, emphasized that the amendment to the Act is extremely important for food banks – the main implementers of the provisions of the Act on counteracting food waste. Thanks to the change in regulations, it will be possible to protect food more effectively against waste on the one hand, and to manage it and use it to help those most in need, on the other hand.
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Clarifying the definition
– The Act clarifies the definitions of: food waste and food sellers. A food seller is not only a chain of stores, but any store with an area of over 250 m2. Under the new regulations, the fee for each store of this size will be increased for each tonne of wasted food, said the deputy minister.
According to the information provided by Secretary of State Michał Kołodziejczak, until now, food that had exceeded its expiry date was considered waste, and the fee for stores for throwing away such food was PLN 100 per tonne. The amendment to the Act provides for an increase in this value.
Increasing penalties for food waste
– Even before public consultations, we propose that every store with an area exceeding 250 m2 should pay at least PLN 500 per tonne of food thrown away. I myself will advocate for this amount to be even higher, said Deputy Minister Kołodziejczak.
Agreements with organizations
– The amended act also introduces the obligation to sign an agreement with social organizations that collect food from stores and distribute it to those in need – said the Secretary of State.
As Deputy Minister Kołodziejczak said, each store with an area exceeding 250 m2 will have to sign an agreement with the organization that will collect food. A network that has 3,000 stores of this size or larger, will therefore have to have 3,000 signed contracts. contracts.
– In the amended act, we will specify the date for signing such an agreement, because until now it was an optional date. Now we say clearly: such an agreement is to be signed by the end of the year for the next year – emphasized the deputy minister.
Mandatory information campaign in stores
The Secretary of State also informed about the obligation to conduct an information campaign in stores introduced in the new regulations.
– Otherwise, stores will pay at least PLN 5,000. PLN fine. Now, during the consultation phase with organizations, I will opt for this penalty to be even higher, noted the deputy minister.
Figures on food waste were presented by MP Piotr Głowski. According to them , we waste 5 tons of food annually in Poland, i.e. 125,000. trucks. In his opinion, this gigantic scale of wasted food can be reduced by building consumer awareness in this area.
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