New Jersey Launches Food Donation Guidelines To Combat Waste

Rutgers Cooperative Extension co-wrote new statewide rules to help people understand what food can be donated without breaking laws or risking health problems. The New Jersey Food Donation Guidelines appeared on the web this fall.

Rutgers teamed up with the Meal Recovery Coalition to create them. This group brings together businesses that want to fight hunger and stop throwing away good food. Every year, each New Jerseyan tosses out roughly 325 pounds of food that people could still eat. Why? Restaurants, stores, and regular people aren't sure what they're allowed to give away.

"Our goal is to ensure that food is used for the purpose it was grown or produced for," said Sara Elnakib, chair of the Department of Family and Community Health Sciences at the extension and a lead author of the document, according to Morning AgClips. "Wasting safe, edible food in a state where nearly 12% of the population is food insecure is both illogical and unethical."

The rulebook explains what donors can do with baked items, cooked meals, and canned products. It spells out legal shields for people who give food through approved recovery groups, as long as they act in "good faith."

Safe ways to store and handle donations fill several pages. A chart walks donors through quick yes-or-no questions about whether their food qualifies.

This work backs the New Jersey Food Waste Reduction Act. That law aims to slash municipal trash by half before 2030 arrives. Money came from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. Researchers studied programs in other states and consulted experts at Harvard University's Food Law and Policy Clinic.

New Jersey has many town-by-town health codes, which made consistency tough to achieve. In the coming months, the extension will train local food safety inspectors on these standards. That should help safe meal recovery spread across the state.

"These guidelines are about making it easier to do the right thing," Elnakib said. "They help ensure that surplus food feeds people — not landfills."

Officials expect millions of meals to reach hungry people instead of rotting in dumps.