Recovering Your Surplus Edible Food: SB 1383 Food Recovery Program Compliance for Businesses
This website is designed to help you develop your own food recovery program in order to comply with new state regulations from Senate Bill 1383 pertaining to surplus edible food. Food recovery is the practice of saving surplus edible food that would otherwise be disposed of and distributing it to people to eat. We will walk you through the steps to compliance, important dates, and how to get help if you need it.
Steps to Get Started
1. Confirm
Make sure this regulation applies to your business or organization.
2. Understand
Learn about the Food Recovery Program requirements of the new SB 1383 law and how they apply to food establishments in Santa Clara County.
3. Connect
Review the list of food recovery organizations and services available to assist you in recovering and distributing your edible surplus food.
4. Contract
Sign a contract with your chosen food recovery organization or service. We have a sample contract.
Ongoing Tasks
5. Recover
Collect and safely store the maximum amount of your excess food for pick-up or delivery to those in need.
6. Track
Record the type, frequency, and pounds of food recovered each month.
7. Monitor
Prepare for inspections and monitoring.
8. Report
Reporting for the first half of 2022 for Tier One Businesses was due August 1, 2022. Future reports will be due May 1 of each year for reporting on the previous calendar year
Visit our jurisdiction-specific recycling program page to learn more about recycling in your area.
The Santa Clara County Food Recovery Program (the Program) is managed by Joint Venture Silicon Valley (Joint Venture) under a contract with the Recycling and Waste Reduction Commission of Santa Clara County, through its Implementation Committee, with representation from all the cities and unincorporated county areas of Santa Clara County. The Program is funded by Santa Clara County and the named entities. The monitoring and inspecting of surplus food generators, food recovery organizations and their services is carried out independently by Joint Venture's Food Recovery Initiative (the Initiative) and is subject to oversight by Santa Clara County and its jurisdictions alone. Though the Initiative was launched under the direction of the Joint Venture board, the County Program is not subject to any form of consultation, direction or oversight by the Joint Venture board. Communications with regulated entities, and any proprietary information, remains the purview of the Program and the jurisdiction within which the regulated entity is located. The Program also exercises fully independent discretion and decision-making pertaining to record-keeping, monitoring, and inspections.