Food Recovery Act of 2016

Food Recovery Act of 2016

This bill provides funding and establishes requirements to reduce food waste and standardize date labeling on food.

The bill expands and establishes grant and loan programs to:

• raise awareness about wasted food and food recovery efforts to reduce the quantity of wasted food,
• improve cooperation between agricultural producers and emergency feeding organizations,
• assist schools in using food from farms that would otherwise go to waste and providing farms with compostable materials, and
• install facilities that include composting or anaerobic digesters that use food or crop waste to produce energy.

The bill provides funds for: (1) state storage and distribution costs under the Emergency Food Assistance Program, and (2) media campaigns to decrease food waste.

The Department of Agriculture (USDA) must establish an Office of Food Recovery to coordinate programs to measure and reduce food waste.

The bill specifies that composting is eligible for support under USDA's conservation programs.

Companies that receive federal food service contracts must donate surplus food to nonprofit organizations that assist food-insecure people.

Food Date Labeling Act of 2016

Producers, manufacturers, distributors, or retailers that place a date label on food packaging of a product must use the phrases "best if used by" to indicate food quality and the phrase "expires on" to warn of food that may be unsafe to eat after a specified date.

Labelers may include a quality date on packaging, but must include a safety date on ready-to-eat products.

No one may prohibit the sale, donation, or use of a product after the quality date for the product has passed.