Food donation requirement in NH?

The US Department of Agriculture estimates that in 2010, supermarkets and grocery stores in the United States threw away over 43 billion pounds of food. Items discarded can include canned items or dry goods that are approaching their “best by” dates, bakery items, and perishables such as meat, dairy and produce that, while not yet spoiled, have passed “peak freshness”.

Last year, France passed a nationwide law that makes it illegal for grocery stores to discard or destroy food. Instead, still-edible items that cannot be sold must be donated to charity while spoiled food goes to farms for composting and other agricultural use. Violations are punishable with stiff fines or even jail time.

In the US, companies can get a tax deduction for donating food. The federal Good Samaritan Food Donation Act also protects donor grocery stories from liability in the case that someone gets ill, so long as it can be shown the food was donated in good faith. However, this hasn’t proven sufficient motivation for most stores to start donating, possibly because of the logistical challenges of getting perishable items to food pantries quickly.

Advocates of mandating the donation of still-edible food in NH argue that the move would help to alleviate hunger. They maintain that charities would quickly develop an infrastructure for distribution if they knew stores would be donating food, and argue that the current incentives for food donation aren’t strong enough to keep food from being thrown away.

Opponents counter that donation to charity should always be an option, not a requirement, or express concerns about the safety of donating older food items. Others note that the cost of the infrastructure needed to distribute the food could in some areas be higher than the value of the donated food itself.

Should NH require grocery stores to donate leftover food instead of discarding it?  Share your opinion in the comments below.