FAQ
Food Recovery FAQs
Check out our List of Food Recovery Organizations and Services. Learn more about how to connect with a local food recovery organization or service here.
Safe edible food recovery depends on the type of food being recovered. Review the Santa Clara County Protocols for Safe Food Donation for best practices. The protocols are broken down by type of food, including prepared foods, meat, poultry, fish, dairy, eggs, produce, deli foods, bakery and dry grocery foods. More detailed recommendations can be found in the California Safe Surplus Food Donation Guide. These all follow CalCode food safety laws. You may also review the Edible Food Recovery Tips & Tricks for more information.
To encourage companies to recover surplus food, the government instituted the Good Samaritan Food Donation Act to protect donors from criminal and civil liability when donating to a hunger relief organization and if the product donated in good faith later causes harm to the recipient.
If you already recover some of your surplus edible food, that is a great start. There are some additional requirements under SB 1383, including recovering the maximum amount of edible food that would otherwise be disposed of, having a contract or written agreement with a food recovery organization/service, and maintaining records of type, frequency, and pounds of food recovered each month.
Although SB 1383 required mandated food donors to donate the maximum amount of their edible food that would otherwise be disposed, SB 1383 does not require food recovery organizations and services to participate. It is the discretion of individual food recovery organizations and services to decide if they would like to participate.
By January 1, 2022, all Tier One Entities and by January 1, 2024, all Tier Two Entities are required to have contracts or written agreements with all of the food recovery organizations/services that they work with.
If a food recovery organization/service does choose to provide services to Tier One or Two Entities, then SB 1383 requires the food recovery organization/service to:
- Establish a written agreement/contract with each entity
- Maintain records related to edible food recovery, including the:
- Name, address, contact information of involved parties (Tier One or Tier Two Entity , food recovery services and/or food recovery organizations),
- Quantity of edible food collected, transported, and/or received per month (in pounds),
- Report quantities of edible food collected and recovered to jurisdictions for each reporting period, and
- Cooperate with local government on food recovery planning efforts.
Tier One and Tier Two Entities will need to do the following to comply with SB 1383 requirements:
- Recover the maximum amount of surplus edible food that would otherwise be disposed (e.g. in compost or landfill) to feed people,
- Have a written agreement or contract with each food recovery organization/service that picks up or receives edible food from your location, and
- Maintain records of type, frequency, and pounds of food recovered each month.
Local Education Agencies (LEAs) that have more than 5000 sq.ft. or more than 250 seats or a student population of at least 500 in their on-site food facility are classified as a Tier Two Entity.
According to CalCode, a "Food facility" means an operation that stores, prepares, packages, serves, vends, or otherwise provides food at the retail level, including operations where food is consumed on or off the premises, regardless of whether there is a charge for the food. A food facility is also any place used in conjunction with the operations described above, including, but not limited to, storage facilities for food-related utensils, equipment, and materials.
"Food facility" includes permanent and nonpermanent food facilities, including:
- Public and private school cafeterias
- Restricted food service facilities
- Commissaries
- Mobile food facilities
- Mobile support units
- Temporary food facilities
- Vending Machines
If your school uses an external food service provider for breakfast, lunch, vending, etc. such as ChoiceLunch, you will still be required to comply with SB 1383 as a Tier Two Entity if any of the above types of food facilities apply to your location.
If you think your entity was incorrectly categorized or it never generates any food waste, please contact [email protected]
In the case that your entity has minimal surplus food, you will still be expected to recover any edible food that would otherwise be disposed of and be required to complete Food Recovery Reports.
In the case that your entity has no surplus food, you will still be required to complete Food Recovery Reports, even if you will be reporting zero pounds recovered.
When the time comes to report the amount of edible food recovered to the Santa Clara County Food Recovery Program, you will receive a unique link to this email address for reporting.
If you have not done so yet, here is a list of Food Recovery Organizations and Services that you can connect and contract with to begin recovering edible food.
A Tier One Generator, or Tier One Business or Entity, is a large commercial edible food business/entity that fits one of the categories below:
- Supermarkets with gross annual sales of $2 million dollars or more
- Grocery stores with a total facility size equal to or greater than 10,000 square feet
- Food service providers
- Food distributors
- Wholesale food vendors
All Tier One Businesses must comply with SB 1383 requirements by January 1, 2022.
A Tier Two Generator, or Tier Two Business or Entity, is a large commercial edible food entity that fits one of the categories below:
- Restaurants with 250 or more seats, or a total facility size equal to or greater than 5,000 square feet
- Hotels with an on-site food facility and 200 or more rooms
- Health facilities with an on-site food facility and 100 or more beds
- Large venues that annually seat or serve an average of more than 2,000 individuals per day of operation
- Large events that serve an average of more than 2,000 individuals per day of operation
- State agencies with a cafeteria with 250 or more seats or a total cafeteria facility size equal to or greater than 5,000 square feet
- Local education agencies with an on-site food facility
All Tier Two Generators must comply with SB 1383 requirements by January 1, 2024.
Edible food recovery means collecting nutritious, edible food that would otherwise go to waste and redistributing it to feed people in need.This includes food that is not sold because of appearance, age, freshness, grade, size, and surplus. Edible food includes but is not limited to prepared foods, packaged foods, and produce. Californians send 11.2 billion pounds of food scraps or food waste to landfills each year, of which one million tons are potentially donatable, edible food. While healthy food goes to waste, millions of Californians don’t have enough to eat. In May 2020, 9.2 million Californians (23% of California’s population) didn’t know where their next meal would come from, according to the COVID Impact Survey.
To reduce waste and address food insecurity, surplus food still safe for people to eat can go to food banks, soup kitchens, and other food recovery organizations and services to help feed Californians. Food that ends up in a landfill also creates methane, a potent greenhouse gas that is 25 times more powerful than carbon dioxide, speeding up climate change. Composting food is better than sending it to the landfill, but not as good as recovering it to feed people. So edible food recovery is not only a vital way for California to conserve resources that go into growing, processing and distributing that food, but also fighting climate change!
In 2016, Governor Brown signed Senate Bill 1383 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from a variety of short-lived climate pollutants, including methane from organic waste. SB 1383 sets a goal for California entities to reduce disposal of organic waste in the landfill, including food that can still be eaten. The law establishes several statewide goals, including:
- By 2020, reduce the amount of organic material disposed in landfills by 50% from the 2014 level,
- By 2025, reduce the amount of organic material disposed in landfills by 75% from the 2014 level, and
- By 2025, recover 20% of currently disposed edible food for human consumption.
SB 1383 places commercial edible food generators into two tiers. This tier system allows entities and local governments more time to prepare to expand or build new food recovery infrastructure for foods that are harder to safely store and distribute.
- Tier One Commercial Edible Food Generators, also called Tier One Entities or Tier One Businesses, typically have more produce, fresh grocery and shelf-stable foods.
- Tier Two Commercial Edible Food Generators, also called Tier Two Entities, typically have more prepared foods, which often require more careful handling to meet food safety requirements.
The food recovery organization or service you’re working with may already have an agreement or contract template that they prefer to use. Coordinate with your corporate office to confirm that this template is one that you are able to use. Our sample contract can be found here.
Please use our Contact Us page to reach out for further information.
The edible food recovery requirements of SB 1383 affect entities (commercial edible food generators), food recovery organizations/services, and local jurisdictions (cities and counties). In order to meet the statewide 20% food recovery goals, local jurisdictions are supporting entities and food recovery organizations with educational and planning tools, as well as monitoring and reporting.