A Descriptive Study of Food Waste-Related Practices and Policies Among Food Pantries in Central and Eastern North Carolina

ABSTRACT

Food pantries play a key role in addressing food insecurity, relying, in part, on foods nearing their sell-by dates to address needs. Yet, little is known about pantries’ food waste-related practices and policies. In an online survey of 84 pantries in North Carolina, fresh produce was reported as the most discarded category and spoilage as the primary reason for discarding food. Most pantries (87%) had an extension dates policy for guiding decisions related to foods past their sell-by date. These findings demonstrate that, while many pantries strive to mitigate waste, broader implementation of food waste-related policies may be beneficial.

KEYWORDS:

• Date labels
• extension dates
• expiration dates
• survey
• food insecurity
• food pantries
• food waste

Acknowledgements

We thank the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina for disseminating the survey and the food pantries for their responses. This work would not have been possible without them.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

The study was funded by a STEM-In-Action grant from the US Army Educational Outreach Program (USAEOP). KRB was supported by a NHLBI NRSA predoctoral traineeship [grant #5T32HL129969] and an American Heart Association predoctoral fellowship [award #23PRE1019862].