All food that cannot be sold by supermarkets in Brussels will be donated. This has been decided by the Brussels City Council. With the approval of this ordinance, supermarkets with more than 1000 square meters are forced to donate food that is still edible and that could not be sold.
The ordinance will begin to be active in the next year 2024. It will force these establishments to donate the food that they have only one day left to be consumed. To this end, agreements will be signed between retail chains and local charities. Currently many of these supermarket chains already have agreements and donate food continuously and voluntarily in solidarity plans. According to the consistory, the fact of formalizing it through this proclamation will help the chains and social organizations to be more active.
According to those responsible, all this will also help the logistics companies that carry it out, Dream and Loco, in their task of collecting and later delivering the unsold merchandise.
With the donation of food, Brussels is ahead of the 2030 agenda against food waste
The 2030 Agenda already includes the need to reduce the food waste 30% by 2030. With this measure, Brussels is ahead and shows a way forward. And it is that only in Brussels more than 70.000 people need help from social entities.
While these 70000 people suffer in their diet, supermarkets throw away an average of one thousand kilos of edible food per month, a figure that is exceeded by many establishments.
The norm approved by the local entity of Brussels also gives the option that companies can look for formulas to reuse food that they have not been able to sell. It also gives the option that they can be sold to individuals outside the normal channel. All so that thousands of tons of food are not thrown away every year.
