New duties to stop food waste across the food chain

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1. The law requires all actors in the food chain to prevent food loss and waste and to follow a hierarchy of priorities: first prevent waste, then donate for human consumption, then use for animal feed, other industries and, as a last resort, recycling.
2. All food chain companies must have a prevention plan and promote agreements to donate their surpluses to food banks or non-profit organizations. No contract may expressly prevent food donation.
3. Bars and restaurants must let customers take home, at no extra cost, the food they have not eaten, and must clearly inform them of this option, for example on the menu.
4. Organizations that distribute donated food must guarantee traceability, keep good hygiene practices, distribute without discrimination and give the products to vulnerable people; selling them is forbidden.
5. Consumers have the right to receive information on how to reduce food waste and to take home food they have not eaten in restaurants.
6. Offenses are classified as minor, serious and very serious. Penalties range from a warning or fines of up to €2,000 to fines of between €60,001 and €500,000 in the most serious cases.
7. Microenterprises and small farms are excluded from the obligations, as are establishments of up to 1,300 square meters in certain cases.
8. The law entered into force on January 2, 2025, but the obligations in Article 6 apply one year after its publication in the Official State Gazette.

Who it affects

• Food production, processing and distribution companies: They must have a prevention plan, follow the hierarchy of priorities and promote donating surpluses.
• Bars, restaurants and catering services: They must allow customers to take leftover food home at no extra cost and inform them of this.
• Food banks and charitable organizations: They must guarantee traceability, hygiene and non-discriminatory distribution of donated food.
• Consumers: They have the right to information and to take home uneaten restaurant food.
• Public administrations: They must run awareness campaigns, good practice guides and plans to monitor and measure food waste.

Words worth knowing

Desperdicio alimentario (food waste)

Food intended for human consumption that ends up discarded as waste.

Pérdidas de alimentos (food loss)

Farm products that remain on the farm itself, for example returned to the soil, and were intended for human consumption.

Trazabilidad (traceability)

The ability to track a food item from its origin to its final destination through records.

Jerarquía de prioridades (hierarchy of priorities)

The mandatory order for managing surpluses: prevent, donate, animal feed, other industries and, last, recycling.

Microempresa (microenterprise)

A company with fewer than ten workers and annual turnover or balance of up to €2 million.

It summarizes the law as published in the BOE. It is written by artificial intelligence and may contain mistakes: the official text is what counts. Read the official text · How we make summaries