WASHINGTON— The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s new federal food code supplemental guidance makes it easier for states to allow people to refill and reuse containers in restaurants, bulk grocery store aisles, deli counters and at events. A coalition of reuse advocates, led by the Center for Biological Diversity, participated in the process to update the guidance, which hadn’t addressed reusables since 2013.
“Reuse challenges our throwaway society, protects forests and waterways, and supports a more sustainable economy,” said Kelley Dennings, a senior campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity. “These updates will help us fight single-use waste by making it easier for restaurants, grocery stores and concerts to offer reusable containers and allowing customers to bring them from home.”
The new supplementary federal food code language gives health departments, reuse service providers, businesses and advocates clear direction and an easier path to build and scale the reuse infrastructure needed to move away from single-use to multi-use containers.
In addition to fighting trash and pollution, reusing containers reduces greenhouse gas emissions. How much emissions are reduced depends on the type of container, but reusable cups save emissions after six uses and reusable bowls save emissions after 13 uses.
“Updating this reusables language in the FDA code was a herculean task and represents the codification of reuse at the highest levels,” said Dr. Dagny Tucker, who co-led the committee tasked with overhauling the code. “It’s a significant step forward for the reuse movement.”
Reuse and refillable changes to the federal food code include:
● Allows new types of businesses to enter the reuse/refill market, which will help build infrastructure to transition from single-use to muti-use by allowing more flexibility for third-party washing companies and bring-your-own containers.
● Allows consumers to fill a clean, sanitized multi-use container. This means it should make it easier for people to bring containers from home to use in restaurants, hot bars, bulk aisles and deli counters pursuant to local health inspector interpretations. Allowing people to fill their own containers means everyone, regardless of their ability to pay, can participate in the reuse economy.
● Allows fresh hot food or drinks (with or without milk) in reusable containers if done through a contamination-free process.
Food codes vary by state, but any state that adopts this new guidance will be making it easier for people to reuse and refill containers.
Background
An FDA-advisory committee, facilitated by the Conference for Food Protection, made up of food safety experts, businesses, academics and consumers was led by Tucker of Vessel and Perpetual and Carrie Pohjola of the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture.
The committee and reuse advocates agreed that the federal food code did not align with practices in the field, which have shown business and consumer-owned reusables can be safely refilled. The updated committee language, approved by regulators in all 50 states, influenced FDA’s guidance issued in November.
