On April 29, the 28th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress voted to pass the "Anti-Food Waste Law", which will now have a legal basis to prevent food waste. Article 12 of the Law stipulates that food operators such as supermarkets and shopping malls should strengthen daily inspections of the food they operate, classify and manage foods that are approaching their shelf life, and make special signs or display them for sale in a centralized manner. This article regulates the issue of "food on expiry date", which is very necessary and timely. It is an important part of the fight against food waste.

Some media reporters investigated in some pastry shops and found that there were still many unsold pastries on the counter when the store was about to close. The clerk said that the remaining food of the day would be destroyed and thrown away, and the company would not allow price reductions. deal with. Previously, there was a heated discussion on Weibo about a certain fresh food merchant discarding expired food at night. Food that could not be sold was discarded on a large scale, and customers could not take it away or buy it. It is understood that destroying expired food is a common practice in the industry, and this is almost the case for many well-known fast food chain brands.

It is obviously a kind of waste to directly destroy and throw away food when it is due. However, the waste of dining with friends and the waste of group meals on tours are different and contain some complex factors. In terms of motives, the destruction of expired food is not a malicious waste, but to ensure food safety and quality, which seems blameless; in terms of interests, the direct loss of the business is the economic interests of the merchants by destroying the expired food. If there is a better way, other They are certainly not willing to generate such waste; in terms of measures, the destruction of expired food itself is an independent operation of the enterprise, and it is difficult to force intervention through administrative means.

According to general understanding, the preferred way to avoid food waste near the deadline is price reduction promotion, which can achieve a win-win effect of avoiding resource waste, reducing merchant losses and benefiting consumers. However, the reason why merchants do not do this , there are economic reasons behind it. In the short term, selling expired goods at low prices will make a certain profit, but once consumers expect that the price of goods will drop at a certain time, they may deliberately wait for the price reduction to buy, thus affecting the sales of regular-priced goods.

Donating food during the Advent period to nursing homes, welfare homes or needy people is also a way to avoid waste, but in reality there are operational difficulties. A single enterprise produces only a small amount of food on expiry date every day, and the transportation, management and labor costs of donation and redistribution even exceed the value of the food itself. Institutions such as nursing homes have higher requirements for food hygiene standards, and due to considerations such as "exemption from liability", they often lack the willingness to accept food donations at short notice.

The author believes that the waste phenomenon existing in the handling of food on the expiry date involves business laws and requires embroidery efforts in management. It is necessary to strengthen guidance while respecting the market and promote the formation of a new social trend that takes into account both market and ethics. The key is to strengthen coordination and reduce information asymmetry.

First, in terms of purchasing goods, make full use of big data resources. Big data is used to make purchase volume predictions, and order quantities are dynamically adjusted based on store conditions. At the same time, the customer reservation mechanism is used to achieve refined production and reduce the frustration of destroying expired food.

The cluster effect should be brought into play in this regard. Shopping malls and even government departments should use the data they have to provide merchants with accurate production and accurate ordering