Why do some food safety guidelines only apply to FWH listings?
The following rules apply exclusively to Food Waste Hero food listings:
🫓 Food on the floor: Food (even fully packaged) can never be placed, stored or photographed on the floor.
📅 Date in the picture: Any available date, such as the Best Before, Use By or Display Until dates must always be shown clearly in the photo(s) of the listing.
The reasons these rules don’t apply to personal food listings are:
- Risk of food safety
The food collected by FWHs is often close to its Use-By date.
In the past, there have been instances where dates were hidden, resulting in food being distributed past its Use By date, which poses serious safety risks.
To ensure transparency and protect the safety of our community, we require all FWHs to take a clear photo of the date on the item they are listing.
Additionally, with FWH listings representing more than 80% of the food shared on the app, the risk of mishandling or safety issues increases, so stricter standards are necessary.
- Agreements with our business partners
We have agreements with our partners on how food should be handled and distributed safely. If these standards are broken, we risk losing the ability to run the FWH programme, as trust from our partners is essential.
- FWHs collect on Olio's behalf
FWHs collect and redistribute food on Olio’s behalf, and since Olio is classified as a food business, we are subject to stricter food safety regulations compared to regular users, who only donate food occasionally. Therefore, FWHs are uphold to the same standards as a food business when sharing the food.
Why aren’t these rules enforced for personal listings?
We focus on enforcing these specific rules for FWH listings due to the higher volume and greater risk involved. As a small team with limited resources, we prioritise where the potential impact is greatest.
This does not mean that non-FWHs should disregard the basic food safety guidelines we provide to all our users.
Can I report a personal listing for breaking these rules?
No. These rules apply only to FWH listings. Personal listings that don't follow these specific guidelines cannot be reported based on these rules.
How do I identify if a listing is from a FWH collection?
All food collected from a business has a label below the picture with the corresponding logo.
