(Last Updated 09/13/2021)
New Jersey Food Waste Policy
Date Labeling
Overview
Date labels are the dates stamped on food items and accompanied by phrases such as “sell by,” “use by,” or “best by.” These dates are generally intended to communicate food quality, not food safety. Nevertheless, they exert a powerful influence on consumers and food vendors, who rely on these labels when deciding whether or not to throw food away. Under current federal law, date labels remain almost entirely unregulated, except for use on infant formula. States have filled this void with a variety of inconsistent date labeling regulations that often fail to reflect the distinction between food safety and food quality.
Currently, 41 states and the District of Columbia require at least some foods to have date labels. These state date label regulations vary widely. Some state regulations require the use of labels only on narrow categories of food, while others are much broader. New Hampshire, for example, requires date labels only on cream and pre-wrapped sandwiches. In contrast, Massachusetts requires date labels on all pre-packaged perishable and semi-perishable food products.
Twenty states and the District of Columbia prohibit or restrict sale or donation of food products once the date has passed, even when such foods are still healthy and safe to consume. These state laws also vary widely. Massachusetts and Oregon allow past-date products to be sold but require them to be clearly labeled as past-date and separated from pre-date products. Montana prohibits milk from being sold or “otherwise offered for public consumption” after the required “sell by” date, which must be 12 days after pasteurization in that state.
This patchwork state regulatory system, as well as the wide array of date labels that appear on products, contributes to confusion among consumers and regulators and ultimately results in the significant waste of safe, wholesome food.
New Jersey Date Labeling Regulations
N.J. Stat. Ann. § 24:10-57.23 (2013).
Applies to
food type
food type
Milk/Dairy
Purpose
of Law
of Law
Date labeling required
Excerpted Language
from the Law
from the Law
Containers of milk, certified milk, Vitamin D milk, homogenized milk, low fat milk, proteinfortified low fat milk, skim milk, protein fortified skim milk, nonfat milk, protein fortifiednonfat milk, flavored milks and dairy drinks, buttermilk, cultured buttermilk, yogurt, eggnog, creams, half-and-half and all other fluid milk products designated by the department shall be marked with the name and address of the processor or the pasteurizing plant number as assigned by the department or the state of origin and the name and address of the distributor.All containers of fluid milk products, including those mentioned above, intended for sale toconsumers, (except for those products which are sterilized and packaged in hermeticallysealed containers), shall be marked with a legend “NOT TO BE SOLD AFTER”, or “SELLBY”, or any other clearly understandable legend approved by the department, followed oraccompanied by the first three letters of the month where possible . . . If two letters are used the letters MR shall mean MARCH and MY shall mean MAY; JN shall mean JUNE and JLshall mean JULY.
N.J. Stat. Ann. § 24:10-57.23 (2013).
Applies to
food type
food type
Milk/Dairy
Purpose
of Law
of Law
Sale after date not permitted
Excerpted Language
from the Law
from the Law
No fluid milk product listed in this section shall be sold or offered for sale after 11:59 p.m. of the date appearing on the containers so marked.
N.J. Admin. Code § 8:21-10.20 (2013).
Applies to
food type
food type
Milk/Dairy
Purpose
of Law
of Law
Sale after date not permitted
Excerpted Language
from the Law
from the Law
(d) No milk product referred to in this regulation shall be sold or offered for sale after 11:59 P.M. of the date appearing on the package or container. Products delivered prior to the “shelflife expiration date” may be consumed on the premises beyond the date appearing thereon.
N.J. Admin. Code § 8:24-3.2 (2013).
Applies to
food type
food type
Shellfish
Purpose
of Law
of Law
Date labeling required
Excerpted Language
from the Law
from the Law
(n)(1) Raw shucked shellfish, packaging and identification requirements include the following: . . . ii. The “sell by” date for packages with a capacity of less than one-half gallon or the date shucked for packages with a capacity of one-half gallon or more.
Liability Protection
Overview
Many potential food donors, including grocers and retailers, cite fear of liability as a primary deterrent to donating food. However, the federal Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act provides a national baseline of civil and criminal liability protection for food donors and recipient nonprofit organizations that receive and distribute food to needy individuals. States cannot make laws that remove or reduce the protection created under the Act, but they are free to enact laws that are the same or even stronger.
All 50 states have state liability protection acts, and several states provide additional liability protection above those offered by the Emerson Act. Examples of state improvements include providing protection even when nonprofit food recovery organizations charge the final recipient; protecting donors that donate directly to the final recipient; reducing unnecessary labeling requirements for liability protection for donated food; and explicitly offering protection when donors donate past-date foods. By going beyond the federal liability protection floor, states encourage food donation and help ensure more food makes it to the tables of those in need.
New Jersey Liability Protection Regulations
- Statute Citation
- N.J. Stat. Ann. § 24:4A-1—A5
- Type of Protection
- Civil and Criminal
- When protection will not apply
- Gross negligence, recklessness, or knowing misconduct
- Who it protects
- Donor: Includes, but is not limited to, any farmer, processor, distributor, wholesaler, or retailer of food, higher education institute, or gleaner nonprofits, food banks, and their agents
Distributor: Food bank or nonprofit organization - Standards for Donated Food
- Includes food not readily marketable due to appearance, freshness, grade, or surplus
- Protections Apply When End Recipient Pays for the Donated Food
- Yes
- Protections Apply to Direct Donations
- No
Federal Liability Protection
The Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act provides a strong federal baseline of protection for food donors. It covers individuals, businesses, nonprofit organizations, the officers of businesses and nonprofit organizations, and gleaners. A donor must donate in good faith to a nonprofit organization that distributes the donated food to needy populations, and the food must meet all quality and labeling standards imposed by federal, state and local laws and regulations.
Tax Incentives
Overview
Tax incentives make food donation more cost-effective and economically beneficial. At the federal level, there are two tax deductions for food donations: a general deduction and an enhanced deduction. The enhanced deduction provides a significantly higher financial benefit, allowing businesses to deduct a value for donated food that is almost double the general deduction when the donated food meets certain eligibility criteria. These incentives have been extraordinarily successful in motivating food donation.
Additionally, a growing number of states have passed or considered state-level tax incentives in recent years. Currently, nine states (Arizona, California, Colorado, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, Oregon, South Carolina, and Virginia) and the District of Columbia offer such tax incentives. These incentives aim to assist certain businesses that do not benefit sufficiently from the federal tax incentive, such as farmers or other businesses with low profit margins. State tax incentives provide those businesses with a more tailored incentive and a benefit that is often easier to understand and utilize than the federal one.
Tax incentives for food donations are structured differently by state; for example, eight states and Washington DC offer tax credits, while Arizona offers a tax deduction. California and South Carolina cover specific costs related to processing or transporting food for donation. Different states also offer incentives for different types of donors, with the bulk targeting farmers.
New Jersey TAX INCENTIVES
New Jersey does not offer additional tax incentives beyond federal incentives.
Federal Tax Incentives
The federal government provides tax deductions to incentivize businesses to donate food. As of December 2015, all businesses—including C-corporations, S-corporations, limited liability corporations (LLCs), partnerships and sole proprietorships—are eligible for an enhanced tax deduction that exceeds the property’s basis for donated food if they meet certain requirements. If they do not meet the requirements, they can still claim a general tax deduction in the amount of the property’s basis.
Animal Feed
Overview
For centuries, using food scraps as animal feed was common worldwide. The practice declined rapidly in the 1980s, when several disease outbreaks were linked to unsafe animal feed. In an attempt to prevent the spread of such diseases, federal laws and regulations were enacted to restrict what is often pejoratively referred to as “garbage feeding” to animals. However, using food scraps as animal feed in a safe, resource-efficient way can be environmentally friendly and energy-efficient, providing multiple benefits for both farmers and food waste generators, such as retailers, restaurants, and institutional cafeterias. Interest in the practice of using a wider array of safe, properly-treated food scraps from a range of sources—including unsold retail food and post-consumer food scraps—as animal feed has been growing.
Federal and state governments regulate the feeding of food scraps to animals by setting restrictions, which vary based on the type of animal that may be fed food scraps and the kind of scraps they may be fed. Forty-eight states and Puerto Rico regulate these practices, most often regarding swine. The federal regulations function as a floor, and state regulations go beyond them, in some cases banning the practice of feeding any food scraps to animals. For example, 15 states ban feeding swine food scraps that contain any animal parts or material, and nine of these states even ban the feeding of vegetable waste to swine. Twelve states also have more stringent license and heat-treatment requirements than the federal rules. These states require heat-treating of vegetable-based food scraps (not just animal-derived food scraps) before they are fed to swine.
New Jersey Animal Feed Regulations
N.J. Stat. Ann. §§ 2:2-4.11, 4:4-22–23, 4:5-106.1–.14; N.J. Admin. Code § 2:2-4:11.
- Animals covered
- Farm animals; exception for swine
- Definition of "garbage"
- Putrescible animal and vegetable wastes resulting from the handling, preparation, cooking and consumption of foods including animal carcasses or parts thereof; but the term “garbage” shall not apply to waste materials from slaughterhouses which go directly to rendering plants for processing. § 4:5-106.1 (2015).
- Prohibitions
- No feeding untreated garbage to swine or unpasteurized dairy products to farm animals. Exception for individuals feeding household garbage to swine. §§ 4:5-106.1, .4; 4:4-22 (2015).
- Licensure
- No individual or facility may operate a garbage-feeding hog farm without first obtaining an annual license. An individual who feeds household garbage to swine raised for the individual’s own use need not obtain a license. §§ 4:5-106.4, 4:5-106.7 (2015).
- Enforcement
- The department of agriculture licenses garbage-feeding hog farms and enforces the garbage-feeding rule. § 4:5-106.3 (2015).The department will inspect the premises of each licensee as often as it deems necessary and at least once per year. § 4:5-106.11 (2015).An authorized representative of the department may examine records pertaining to garbage-feeding operations. Copies of such records shall be submitted to the department upon request. § 4:5-106.12 (2015).The department may refuse to issue or restore, or to revoke or suspend the license of an individual or facility that violates the garbage-feeding rule. § 4:5-106.13 (2015).Any individual or facility that violates the garbage-feeding rule will be fined up to $100 for the first penalty and $200 for each subsequent penalty. § 4:5-106.14 (2015).Any individual or facility that violates the pasteurization rule will be fined up to $50 for the first offense and up to $100 for each subsequent offense. § 4:4-23 (2015).
- Treatment requirements
- Garbage must be heated either on the premises of the garbage-feeding hog farm where such garbage will be fed or at a location approved by the department of agriculture. The garbage must be heated to a temperature high enough and for long enough to kill disease organisms. § 4:5-106.1 (2015). Garbage must be heat-treated within 48 of receipt of the garbage and fed to swine within 72 hours of cooking. § 2:2-4.11 (2015).Dairy byproducts must be pasteurized by heating them to 145 degrees Fahrenheit and held at that temperature for at least 30 minutes, or heated to 185 degrees without holding. By byproducts from cheese factories or creameries that pasteurize milk or cream prior to manufacturer need not be re-heated. § 4:4-22 (2015).
- Relevant state regulatory body
- New Jersey Department of Agriculture (§ 4:5-106.3 (2015)), http://www.nj.gov/agriculture/.
Federal Animal Feed Policy
Under federal law, food scraps can generally be fed to animals, so long as food scraps with animal derived by-products are heat-treated by a licensed facility before being fed to swine; and food scraps containing animal-derived by-products are not fed to ruminants. The federal regulations function as a floor, and most state regulations go beyond them.
Organic Waste Bans & Waste Recycling Laws
Overview
In order to push businesses and consumers to reduce food waste, a growing number of states and localities are enacting organic waste bans or waste recycling laws to restrict the amount of food waste an entity can send to the landfill. Five states and several localities have passed either waste bans or waste recycling laws for food waste. Four states—Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Vermont—structure their laws as organic waste bans, while one state, California, has instituted a waste recycling law requiring commercial generators of organic waste to either compost or anaerobically digest organic waste. Each of these states prohibits certain entities that generate specified amounts of food waste from sending this waste to landfills, subject to exceptions. The municipal laws that exist function similarly to the laws of these states.
However, each state differs regarding the specifics of its waste ban or recycling law. For example, they vary with regard to the types of entities covered under the law, how much organic waste an entity must produce in order to be covered, and whether exceptions exist for entities located far from a facility that accepts food scraps. As of 2020, Vermont’s law will cover anyone, including residents, who generates any amount of food waste. In contrast, other states cover only certain commercial, industrial, and institutional entities. These differences have a significant impact on the reach of these laws, and therefore on the amount of food waste diverted.
New Jersey Organic Waste Recycling Laws
New Jersey does not have any organic waste bans or waste recycling laws that bear on food waste.