New law to limit food waste by supermarkets

Senat, the upper chamber of the Polish parliament, is working on a new bill that would limit the amount of food wasted by supermarkets. Shops with area greater than 250 sqm, where at least half of turnover comes from selling food, would be forced to sign an agreement with a charity or a food bank to donate food approaching its best-before date. The supermarkets who would opt for binning food instead of donating it will pay PLN 0.10 per kilogram of waste to the charity it had signed contract with. Failing to pen a deal would result in a financial penalty of PLN 5,000, a draft bill indicated. According to Eurostat, Poland wastes 9 million metric tons of food annually.