Michael Coy
SPAIN has passed a new law requiring all parts of the food supply chain to take action against food waste.
The measure places legal responsibility on producers, distributors, retailers, and consumers.
According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, nearly one-third of all food produced globally is wasted—around 1.3 billion tonnes a year.
In Spain alone, 1.3 million tonnes of food were thrown away in 2023. That equates to more than 65kg per household.
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- Supermarket chain in Spain introduces bags containing deformed fruit and vegetables to comply with food waste law
- Supermarket chain in Spain introduces bags containing deformed fruit and vegetables to comply with food waste law
So how will the new law affect you?
The Spanish Ministry of Agriculture says that we all need to stop wasting food.
With better practices in place, much of the waste could be eliminated.
As of the start of this year, a new ‘food waste law’ has been in effect.
Spain has an official gazette, known by its initials (BOE), and newly-passed regulations appear there. Once they are published in the gazette, they are deemed to be fully in force.
The food waste law, after some delays, made the BOE on Thursday, 3 April. Its aim is for each of us, personally, to reduce our waste by 50%. Companies involved in production and supply of food are asked to cut waste by 20% by the year 2030.
By the terms of the law, restaurants and shops MUST give away any left-over or unwanted food. Charities can then distribute it to the underprivileged. If the food is past its sell-by date, or damaged in some other way, it can be given to farms for use as animal feed, or put to good use as compost, or as fuel for generating energy.
Any food business which employs fewer than ten people, or any farm which has less than fifty workers, is exempt.
The new law finally makes the “doggy bag” respectable.
All restaurants and cafes MUST provide you with a free recyclable container in which to take away any food which you can’t, or don’t choose to, eat.
The only exceptions to this new requirement are restaurants which offer an all-you-can-eat menu.
You are perfectly within your rights to ask for your ‘doggy bag’.
The law, ambitiously, also wants to educate us on better food practices.
No attempt is made to interfere in how we use food in the home, but it is hoped that we will improve by (for example) ‘rotating’ our food – consuming first those packets whose sell-by date is about to expire.
We should all put more effort into planning our use of food.
If you come from a country such as the UK, where it’s very common to see reduced items on the shelves, you’ll be surprised by how little it’s done in Spain.
Occasionally you may see one or two reduced products but most it’s not widespread and there are usually no specific reduced sections.
This is likely to change.
The new law aims to transform that habit, and encourage supermarkets to offer products that are close to expiration date, or fruit and vegetables that are ‘ugly’, at lower prices.
This can help save on your weekly shop and, in turn, reduce waste.
All companies in the food sector are required to develop and implement a Food Loss and Waste Prevention Plan.
This plan must include a process analysis, corrective measures, a hierarchy of priorities.
For example, they will be obliged to create a hierarchy of which products can be donated and which ones need to be used and eaten first.
Restaurants and cafes are being encouraged to create more flexible menus, so that customers can choose smaller portions or main dishes without sides, for example, if they don’t want to eat as much.
This in turn encourages customers not to order food or portion sizes they know they won’t be able to eat.
There will be a series of fines in place for establishments who don’t follow the new law or fail to put the above points into action.
Fines range from €2,001 to €60,000 for not having a food waste prevention plan in place or for the intentional wastage of food fit for consumption.
In cases of repeated offences or particularly serious violations they can even go up to €500,000.
I have often wondered why in the supermarkets I use I rarely see any “specials”. The new law should make this now a common feature, and will make supermarkets better manage their shelves of perishables, as well as benefit consumers. The figures of food wastage quoted are astonishing. It would be interesting to know the make up of the 1.3 million tons of wasted food in Spain in 2023 : domestic, ready to eat (restaurants) and commercial (supermarkets). If I ever have to bin any food, cooked or otherwise, I feel really guilty!