Food Recovery

SB 1383 Targets and Enforcement: SB 1383 establishes targets to reduce organic waste disposal by 50% by 2020 and 75% by 2025, and to increase edible food recovery by 20% by 2025. Cities and counties are required to implement a variety of programs to advance these goals.

SB 1383 puts programs in place that are designed to help recycle food waste and reuse it through food donation. The Number 1 priority, though, should always be to reduce food waste at the source.

Food recovery means collecting edible food that would otherwise go to waste and redistributing it to feed people in need. This is the highest and best use for food that would otherwise go to waste. Feeding hungry people through food recovery is the best use for surplus food and a vital way for California to conserve resources and reduce waste thrown in landfills.

Californians send 11.2 billion pounds of food to landfills each year, some of which was still fresh enough to have been recovered to feed people in need. While billions of meals go to waste, millions of Californians don't have enough to eat.

To reduce food waste and address food insecurity, surplus food still safe for people to eat will instead go to food banks, soup kitchens, and other food recovery organizations and services to help feed Californians in need. This will save landfill space and lower methane emissions, a climate super pollutant, emitted by organic waste in landfills.

The City of Escondido works with Produce Good, a gleaning service that picks and donates unwanted local produce from commercial farms and residents and provides the City with another way to meet the California state diversion compliance laws by diverting what would otherwise be wasted, keeping this unwanted produce out of the landfill to instead feed people. The City also works with the San Diego Food System Alliance which created a GIS platform that connects food recovery organizations with local businesses. View the Food Recovery (PDF) for additional information. (Download the Food Recovery - Spanish Version (PDF))

Senate Bill 1383 & Food Recovery

To reduce food waste and help address food insecurity, SB 1383 requires that by 2025 California will recover 20% of edible food that would otherwise be sent to landfills, to feed people in need. The law directs the following:

• Jurisdictions must establish food recovery programs and strengthen their existing food recovery networks
• Food donors must arrange to recover the maximum amount of their edible food that would otherwise go to landfills
• Food recovery organizations and services that participate in SB 1383 must maintain records by 2022

Edible food means food intended for people to eat, including food not sold because of:

• Appearance
• Age
• Freshness
• Grade
• Size
• Surplus

Edible food includes but is not limited to:

• Prepared foods
• Packaged foods
• Produce
• All food donations must meet the food safety requirements of the California Retail Food Code (PDF).
  
• Business- SB1383 Compliance Guide
• Business- SB1383 Compliance Guide (Spanish)

CalRecycle SB 1383- Food Donor Guidelines

Edible Food Donation Resources

• SB1383 Food Recovery Requirements Overview
• Food Donation Liability 
• 5 Steps for Setting Up a Food Donation Program 
• Food Donation Tax Deductions 
• Food Recovery Agreement Template
• List of Food Recovery Organizations and Services (PDF)-Rev. 6/2025

Edible Food Donation Resources- Spanish

• SB1383 Food Recovery Requirements Overview (Spanish)
• Food Donation Liability (Spanish)
• 5 Steps for Setting Up a Food Donation Program (Spanish)
• Food Donation Tax Deductions (Spanish)
• Food Recovery Agreement Template (Spanish)

Additional Resources:

• For more information on safe surplus food donation and food safety, please visit the California Conference of Directors of Environmental Health website.
• Safe Surplus Food Toolkit (Guidance for Food Facilities) (PDF)
• Safe Surplus Food Donation Toolkit (Guidance for Environmental Health Departments) (PDF)
• Food Donation Resources from the Public Health Alliance of Southern California

If you have any questions, please email Our Recycling Team.