Food Recovery Glossary
“What’s the difference between ‘hunger’ and ‘food insecurity?’” “What exactly is a ‘supply chain?’”
If you’ve asked yourself these questions, you’re not alone! Today, we’re defining these and other important terms. We hope this will help you better understand and talk about the issues at the heart of our work at Spoonfuls.
Food Supply Chain
The system that works to get food to people’s plates. Steps within it can include: Growing, harvesting, processing, packaging, shipping, and selling food.
Every step of the food supply chain yields wasted food. Spoonfuls focuses on recovering fresh, healthy food that would otherwise go to waste from food retailers and brands.
Expiration Date
A date indicating when a food is no longer safe to eat (which is very different than a “date label.”) Read on.
Baby formula is the only food item in the United States with a true expiration date. See below to learn more about other “date labels.”
Date Label
A manufacturer’s indication of when they expect a food item will be at peak quality. Think: phrases like “best by,” “sell by,” and “use by.” These terms are not standardized and are not an indication of food safety.
Lack of consumer understanding around date labels is a leading cause of household food waste. Standardizing date labels to make them easier to understand is an important way our state and country can keep more good food from going to waste. Learn more on our Advocacy page.
Unsold or Uneaten Food
Food that hasn’t been sold or eaten by people.
Often, we use “unsold or uneaten food” to describe food that hasn’t gone to waste yet but will soon without some intervention. For example, when food is taken off a grocery store shelf to make room for newer product, the older, unsold product is moved to the back of the store. There, store personnel have to decide whether to trash, compost, or donate that food to an organization such as Spoonfuls. Excess, unsold food is a good candidate for food recovery. It’s still good to eat and can be connected to people who can eat it.
Wasted Food
Also called “food waste.” This is food that is no longer fit for human consumption. Wasted food also represents a wasted opportunity to feed people.
Food Waste Diversion
The process of redirecting food from landfills through more sustainable methods like food recovery, recycling, composting, and upcycling.
Food Recovery
The action of collecting excess or unsold, still-good-to-eat food and ensuring it reaches people. Also known as “food rescue.”
Spoonfuls recovers food from food brands and retailers and distributes it to community food programs such as local pantries.
Composting
When food waste and other organic materials decompose naturally. This decomposition process yields nutrient-rich soil that can help grow more food.
Compared to landfilling, composting is a more climate-friendly way to discard food scraps. It’s a great option for food that can’t be consumed. For food that can, it’s even more climate-friendly to ensure food is eaten before it becomes waste.
Climate Emergency
A state in which urgent action is needed to minimize the warming of our planet.
With every degree Earth warms, the risk of irreversible and catastrophic damage to plant, animal, and human life increases. Intervention is necessary to minimize (and prevent wherever possible) the effects of climate change.
Among the many devastating effects of the climate emergency is its impact on the food supply.
Greenhouse Gases
Gases that, when released into the atmosphere, trap heat around Earth and cause the entire planet to warm, like a greenhouse. As more gases are emitted, the greenhouse effect gets stronger.
Carbon dioxide and methane are common greenhouse gases. Both are emitted across the food supply chain, and food that ends up in a landfill is especially guilty of releasing methane as it rots. By minimizing wasted food, we curb the greenhouse gases emitted during decomposition. This also ensures the gases emitted during food production aren’t in vain.
Hunger
A feeling of physical discomfort caused by not having enough food to eat.
Food Insecurity
A lack of reliable, consistent access to enough, nutritious food to eat. It can be a temporary situation or last a long time. It may or may not involve physical hunger.
The term “food insecurity” takes nutrition into account whereas “hunger” does not. This is important because even if someone has consumed enough calories, a diet lacking in healthy food can impact health. People without access to healthy foods are at a higher risk for obesity and diet-related diseases.
Food Justice
A recognition that fresh, healthy food is a basic human right and that not everyone has equal access to the healthy foods they need. It acknowledges the importance of working toward a fair food system in order to overcome barriers to food access.
At Spoonfuls, we believe everyone deserves consistent access to nutritious food. We’re not in this business of food recovery to be helpful or heroic, to “save” people, or to give back. We’re here because it’s necessary and food insecurity and the climate emergency challenge all of us. Preventing wasted food is an important way we address these issues.
Environmental Justice
A recognition that clean air, water, and land is a basic human right and that not everyone has equal access to it. It acknowledges that marginalized people often have less access to these necessities than others.
We repeat: At Spoonfuls, we believe everyone deserves consistent access to nutritious food. We’re not in this business of food recovery to be helpful or heroic, to “save” people, or give back. We’re here because it’s necessary and food insecurity and the climate emergency challenge all of us. Preventing wasted food is an important way we address these issues.
Culturally-relevant Food
Food that aligns with one’s religious or cultural needs and traditions.
When people have food they enjoy and know how to cook, it’s less likely to go to waste! Our Food Recovery Team works to connect specific types of food with programs that can best use it. For example, Margaret Fuller House has told us their clients, who are predominantly AAPI, appreciate receiving ingredients from Spoonfuls that are popular in Asian cuisines, like daikon.
