RIGA, July 24 (Xinhua) -- The Latvian government on Tuesday endorsed draft legislation that would allow donating food past the "best before" date to charity, the association Civic Alliance-Latvia informed.
The association's director Kristine Zonberga said that the current regulation has been impeding the development of the donation culture in Latvia as businesses willing to donate food to charity are faced with various legal obstacles and burdened by additional tax expenses, which discourages them from participation in such charitable initiatives and increases the amount of food that is wastefully discarded.
The draft amendments to the law regulating the supervision of food distribution are welcome and extremely necessary for the development of the donation tradition in Latvia, Zonberga said.
Based on said amendments, government regulations will be drawn up to cover specific situations, product groups and rules for the distribution of food products that are past their "best before" date.
Civic Alliance-Latvia has urged government authorities to involve nongovernmental organizations in drafting these rules, arguing that their expertise is essential for preparing a high-quality, effective regulation that would allow retailers to donate food products to the poor in the best possible way.
Civic Alliance-Latvia is an umbrella organization uniting 127 nongovernmental groups in the Baltic country.
