SAFE position on food donation in the EU

05 December 2023

Last November 29th, SAFE published a position paper: “Food Donation in the EU: state of art, barriers, and perspectives.” Food waste is a major concern among the member states of the European Union. The study highlights differences in country laws and how they are applied to reduce food waste by food donations.

SAFE’s study covers different legislative frameworks among Member States. While countries like Finland enforce stringent laws requiring food operators to donate surplus food, others, such as Malta, rely on existing government schemes without legislation. There are many obstacles, like rising food prices that affect people in need to logical bottlenecks. We also found that effective trash reduction initiatives are further complicated by regional variations in the regulations. In addition, charities struggle to make use of donated food that is approaching its used-by date as it becomes a dumping ground for supermarkets. By toing this, reatilers avoid paying a tax on discarded food.

The lack of a harmonised EU legal framework for food donations, the delegation of responsibility for the application and interpretation of food safety rules to decentralised structures, the increase in transport costs and some policies on taxation of unsold food are still major problems for the development of the sector. Local service communities are no longer able to maintain their activities because of these problems, thus losing their link with the territory and increasing the number of disadvantaged areas.

In its position paper, SAFE calls for a comprehensive transformation in the food donation system to combat food waste effectively. Our survey highlights the need for harmonising food safety regulations within the EU, particularly concerning the legal responsibilities surrounding charitable donations.