Food rescue

Food rescue, also called food recovery, food salvage or surplus food redistribution, is the practice of gleaning edible food that would otherwise go to waste from places such as farms, produce markets, grocery stores, restaurants, or dining facilities and distributing it to local emergency food programs.

The recovered food is edible, but often not sellable. In the case of fresh produce, fruits and vegetables that do not meet cosmetic standards for shape and color might otherwise be discarded.^[1] Products that are at or past their "sell by" dates or are imperfect in any way such as a bruised apple or day-old bread are donated by grocery stores, food vendors, restaurants, and farmers markets. Other times, the food is unblemished, but restaurants may have made or ordered too much or may have good pieces of food (such as scraps of fish or meat) that are byproducts of the process of preparing foods to cook and serve. Also, food manufacturers may donate products that marginally fail quality control, or that have become short-dated. In many cases, products that have reached a "best before" or "sell by" date may still be usable. What dates mean varies in different countries.^[2]

Organizations that encourage food recovery, food rescue, sharing, gleaning and similar waste-avoidance schemes often work with food banks, food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters to redistribute food. Food rescue operations need to keep food safe during storage and transportation. They also need to share information quickly to ensure that near-perishable foods can be moved to where they can be used.^[3] Apps that match end-of-day produce with customers and charitable organizations are increasingly being used.^[4][5]

As well as addressing food insecurity, food rescue decreases the production of greenhouse gases in landfills and is an important step in helping cities to become carbon neutral.^[6] In recent years, the EU has taken considerable action to combat food loss and waste as part of their Sustainable Development Goals.^[7] In 2016, France required supermarkets to donate their unsold food rather than throwing it away.^[4] In October 2021, the city of Milan, Italy, won the Earthshot Prize for a citywide project to redistribute surplus food from supermarkets, restaurants and companies.^[8] In 2023, Brussels, Belgium, has begun work on improving the labeling system for "best before" and "use by" dates to help reduce the amount of food that is still safe to consume from being thrown out by consumers.^[9]