Recently, the law enforcement officers of Nanjing Administration for Market Supervision found a number of breads in the kitchen waste bin of a bakery, and all bread were discarded because their sizes did not meet the finished product requirements. The staff said that according to the company’s regulations, this kind of appearance unqualified bread can only be discarded, and the bread that cannot be sold out every day will also be discarded.

The law enforcement officers believed that the bakery had serious food wasting behaviors, which violated the provisions of the Anti-Food Waste Law, and issued a notice of correction to the party concerned and organized an administrative interview with the party concerned. This is also the first case of food wasting behaviors investigated and punished in Nanjing since the official implementation of the Anti-Food Waste Law.

Around the punishment case, some netizens believe that the pursuit of quality by seller is not intentional waste, but most of them believe that seller should give discarded bread away free or sell them at a discount to reduce waste. Some sellers are caught in the "contradictory" situation that if not discarding the bread, it is possible to occur food safety hazards and if discarding the bread, it is suspected as food waste.

Food discarding is not uncommon in the baking industry and supermarkets, fast food, tea and beverage industries, especially for fresh food category. The main reason is that the product shelf life is short, if not timely processed, it is easy to occur food safety hazards. Discarding is a less costly way to manage food near its sell-by date with less food safety risk. If food near its sell-by date is not handled properly and is accidentally sold to consumers through other channels, the food safety risk will be greater. However, Discarding is indeed a form of food waste, and more refined management can be operated.

Despite the "dilemma", most bakeries are trying to balance food safety with food waste reduction.

Many bakeries will make and sell products in batches over time, and will also adjust shipments according to the weather to effectively control the remaining amount and eliminate waste. In the evening near closing, stores will carry out discounts, tastings, promotions and other activities to accelerate the clearance of surplus products, and store employees can also enjoy daily bread set meal or dinners.

Many bakeries would like to give away surplus products to needy groups, but suffer from lack of appropriate channels or platforms.

In fact, in order to reduce food waste, the U.S. established the world’s first "food bank" in 1967. The "food bank" mainly accepts food and financial donations from companies and individuals, and also collects and sorts the food near its sell-by date and expired food from supermarkets in a mandatory and uniform manner.

It is reported that Hangzhou has opened a similar "West Lake Food Bank", where food collected from around the world that may be wasted will be packed and distributed to needy families in the streets. At present, the Yonghui supermarket, Nongfu Spring, and Fresh Hema have signed public welfare cooperation agreements with the "West Lake Food Bank".