The poor are encouraged to distribute expired food. Development of legislative solutions for the regulation of foodsharing.
Foodsharing is being considered by the government as an alternative to the introduction of food cards to support the poor. Cards are an unpopular and expensive measure, requiring funding from the budget for hundreds of billions of rubles. Foodsharing in this case looks like a more efficient and rational way to provide support to the needy segments of the population. The idea is not new, borrowed from abroad. Food sharing as the distribution of expired products originated in Germany as a way to deal with food waste, it successfully combines environmental and social functions, and is a manifestation of the sharing economy and reasonable consumption.
Information has appeared that the Ministry of Industry and Trade, together with retailers, is considering the possibility of donating expired products to charity. However, it is difficult to understand what term is appropriate under the law, since there is no such definition in it. It is not clear, in this case, the bill goes for weeks, days or hours, it is obvious that for each category of goods the requirements should be different. But in any case, products with an expiring shelf life are not expired or spoiled goods, there is no talk of their use. The transfer of expired goods to charity is prohibited and these requirements are not going to be changed.
Food sharing would make it possible to sell about 1 million tons of food, while providing up to half of the diet of more than 3.5 million Russians, and to shift part of the budget costs for the implementation of the support measure to retail chains. But the gratuitous transfer of food with an expiring shelf life is not encouraged at the legislative level, it is more profitable for retailers to dispose of such products in terms of paying taxes. The Ministry of Industry and Trade is now busy developing legislative solutions to regulate foodsharing.
Now food sharing largely operates due to the stricter requirements of retailers for goods in comparison with the legislative ones. Shops and catering companies remove products from sale even a little earlier than the expiration date (or significantly reduce the price of them). Also, retailers do not purchase products if they have less than 30% of the expiration date left in stock.
It is noted that when developing food sharing rules, it is worth considering logistics, transportation requirements and storage conditions in order to avoid falsification of goods. The Ministry of Industry and Trade said that they consider it inappropriate to form any additional requirements for products with an expiring shelf life.
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