Restaurants are a huge source of food waste. A single American restaurant could waste up to 100,000 pounds of food per year. This equates to over 83,000 meals per restaurant that are never eaten!
Generally, this food is not donated and restaurants usually have a reason: fear of being sued. Restaurants worry that if their donated food causes some form of harm to the people eating it, they will face lawsuits that they would rather not have on their plates. This fear, however, is unfounded.
The Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act of 1996 protects those who donate food from civil and criminal liability if the recipient falls ill or gets hurt. Unless it can be proven that there was overwhelming malicious intent or gross neglect on the restaurant’s part, they cannot be sued or asked to pay damages.
Currently, 56% of restaurants not donating to food banks are using liability as an excuse. There are those working to gain restaurant participation in programs to donate food, but it is not successful on a widespread basis.
So what are some ways that restaurants could be persuaded?
One is for more uniform laws and regulations nationwide to be present for food sanitation and labeling guidelines. Since these guidelines differ state to state, it can be difficult for restaurants to understand what they are getting into when donating food. The Food Labeling Act may provide a solution to this in the near future.
Another idea is to amend the Emerson Act to catch up with the present day. Many believe that if it is updated, its prospects will be more enticing for the larger community of restaurants.
Overall, it is a recognizable problem of how much food is being wasted by American restaurants. Imagining how many meals just one restaurant could produce from food waste per year is difficult. Imagining the amount every restaurant could produce is virtually unfathomable. It is doable though, and in compliance with the Sustainable Development Goals of the Obama Administration and the United Nations for 2030 (to halve food waste), its attainability may be closer than we think.
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