Products with an expiration date will be given away for free

Nearly a third of the world’s food is wasted

Our country is closer than ever to the free distribution of expired products. It is possible that in the near future they will simply be given out in stores, like balloons at a children’s party. The Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation gave the go-ahead.

Briefly, the situation is as follows. Trade networks would long ago have distributed (or sold at very nominal prices) to citizens products with an expiring shelf life. But today they take them to landfills and dispose of them.

According to the existing law, such products, even if they are distributed free of charge or transferred to charitable foundations, are subject to value added tax – from 10% to 20%. But the export to the trash frees the trade network from paying this tax. It is clear that they took the lesser of two evils …

This is not the first time that State Duma deputies have approached the government with such an initiative: to abolish VAT on products with an expiring shelf life. In order to support low-income families. After all, the food that today is transported by trucks to solid domestic waste landfills is quite benign and is able to financially support the socially unprotected segments of the population. Yes, and significantly reduce the environmental burden from our landfills.

And now, finally, it happened. The Ministry of Industry and Trade supported the deputy bill and has already submitted it to the State Duma for consideration. This was announced by Deputy Minister Viktor Yevtukhov.

According to statistics, about 30% of products in the world are wasted. First, they are actually produced, then packed, packaged, transported by transport to trade organizations, … and after some time, a third of the products, for the production, storage, transportation of which huge resources have been spent, are buried or, at best, disposed of in a landfill.

The reason is simple: trade fills its warehouses with provisions to the limit, based on the expectation that buyers will rush into the stores and buy everything. Buyers themselves clog refrigerators to the eyeballs so as not to deny themselves anything. As a result, 30% of this good, in the end, is thrown into garbage containers, having deteriorated.

The problem of the poor and needy in our country is not new. Of course, it needs to be addressed. But, according to some experts, not the free distribution of products that are “out of condition”. And the payment of monetary compensation to the needy layers, on which they could buy food at their own discretion.

True, our authorities have not dared to take such an approach for more than a decade. However, the State Duma and the Ministry of Industry and Trade have already taken the first step towards the poor Russians.

“According to Rosstat, 1.55% of our population is chronically malnourished,” says Petr Shelishch, chairman of the Consumers Union of Russia. – Among children under 5 years old, 3.1% were wasted and 10.6% were stunted. At the same time, the annual loss of products in our country is 1.6 million tons. Their use could significantly improve the nutrition of the poor.

Therefore, our Consumer Union welcomes the decision of the Ministry of Industry and Trade to abolish VAT on products with an expiring shelf life.

– But who is considered poor and how to recognize him? Issuing any documents?

– With the current level of digitalization, this is not a problem: all the information is already in the database. For example, those who receive housing subsidies, or other categories of citizens. This is approximately 6-7% of the population.

In many countries of the world, in-kind food aid is organized for those in need. These are charity canteens, and the so-called field kitchens, and the distribution of products with an expiring shelf life. This practice allows, moreover, to significantly save on the disposal of products.