Due to widely varying interpretations and enforcement of state-level food safety regulations at the local level, leftover prepared foods that could be legally and safely donated and consumed are instead entering landfills. The NC Local Food Council would like to learn about your community’s policy challenges and successes related to the recovery of unserved prepared and ready-to-eat foods for human consumption. How is food safety policy implementation and enforcement affecting the local recovery stream of these types of foods?

What is food recovery?
Food recovery, also called food rescue or food salvage, is the practice of gleaning edible food for human consumption that would otherwise go to waste from institutions such as restaurants, dining facilities (schools, businesses, hospitals, etc.), grocery stores, markets, etc. and distributing it to local emergency feeding programs.

What are prepared foods?
Prepared and ready-to-eat foods are regulated in North Carolina by county health departments under statewide rules adopted by the Dairy and Food Protection Branch of the NC Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (http://ncagr.gov/fooddrug/food/foodlaw.htm). NC Department of Health and Human Services’s Environmental Health Section’s Food Protection Program (https://ehs.ncpublichealth.com/faf/food/) applies the NC Food Code and provides support to local health departments in enforcing those regulations. Prepared and ready-to-eat foods are any meal, food, or beverage to which a retailer has added value or has altered its state (other than solely by cooling) by preparing, combining, dividing, heating, or serving, in order to make the food or beverage available for immediate human consumption.

What are unserved prepared foods?
Unserved prepared and ready-to-eat foods are prepared foods that have not passed into the hands of a consumer. Foods that have passed into the possession of consumers fall under a different set of regulatory guidelines for recovery.

Thank you for your time!
Your input on this survey is greatly appreciated! Please answer the questions to the best of your knowledge by February 8, 2020. The results of this survey will be used to convene stakeholders around food recovery policy issues. If you have any questions about this survey, please email Angel Cruz at aecruz@ncsu.edu.