The law to reduce food waste, promulgated by President Iohannis

Consumers will benefit from reduced prices for food before the expiration date and non-governmental organizations will be able to more easily receive food that does not have a high degree of perishability, according to the law to reduce food waste, a normative act that was promulgated on Friday by President Klaus Iohannis.

The new normative act, which amends law 217/2016 on the reduction of food waste, aims to organize at national level the activity of all economic operators in the agri-food sector and the measures regarding the reintroduction of food into the economic circuit, the distribution of food to disadvantaged people and the connection of local producers with distributors and traders from Romania.

According to a press release from the USR, the parliamentary political group that initiated the respective normative act, 2.55 million tons of food are lost annually in Romania, which could reach, for example, thousands of children who still go to bed hungry every day .

Deputy Diana Buzoianu, USR, said: "The fight against food waste makes food that would otherwise end up in the landfill become resources. The law was developed from the very beginning by a cross-party working group, precisely for this project to become a reality, and now, after two years of negotiations, we have a favorable final vote".

According to the new law, the procedure by which non-governmental organizations can receive food when they do not have a high degree of perishability is simplified, there will be a national platform for reporting data on food waste from operators, created and managed by the Ministry Agriculture, and shops, restaurants, canteens, authorities that also manage food will be obliged to apply at least two of the measures listed by law before throwing food in the trash.

Measures that can be implemented by economic operators or authorities include reducing the price of food before the expiry date, donating food, transferring food so that it can be reused for animal feed and composting food.

The quoted source also says: "This law will have a major impact in Romania, a country where, although the average income is much lower than in Western Europe, the amounts of food we throw away are much higher. Why? Because until now we didn't have what this law provides - the clear, simple legal framework so that surplus food reaches exactly those who need it. The new law also means a helping hand for entrepreneurs, because it involves less bureaucracy. One of the objectives of the law is to comply with the targets assumed by Romania at the international level: the halving of food waste per capita by the year 2030. Studies show that between 30% and 50% of the food that Romanians buy, they then throw in the trash each month".

The new law also introduces a series of specific obligations for public administration authorities and institutions, such as the preparation of a national strategy for the prevention and reduction of food waste that must be updated every five years at most, the implementation of measures to combat food waste by the institutions public, where food products are managed, the creation by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of a national platform for the prevention and reduction of food waste in which economic operators and receiving operators enter their mandatory information, the publication by MADR on its website of some relevant data regarding food losses and waste of economic operators, coordination by MADR of the development of informative materials for economic operators in order to prevent and reduce food waste.