A charity that campaigns against food waste may face prosecution after a trading standards inspection found produce that was past its use-by date at one of its warehouses.

The Real Junk Food Project, which has 127 affiliated cafes worldwide, aims to combat food waste by collecting produce that would otherwise be thrown away and preparing it for the general public.

Adam Smith, a co-founder of the charity, has been summoned to a formal hearing by West Yorkshire Trading Standards Services (WYTSS) after an inspection at a premises in Leeds.

Inspectors said they had found 444 items that were a total of 6,345 days past their use-by date, the date after which a product cannot be sold.

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Smith faces potential prosecution under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, as well as Food Safety and Hygiene Regulations 2013. He said all food served was safe and that the project had not received complaints from the public.

The Real Junk Food Project has three “share houses” in Sheffield, Birmingham and Leeds, which receive unwanted food from supermarkets, food banks, wholesalers and farms. The produce that is deemed fit for human consumption is then sent to affiliated schools, cafes and event caterers, on a pay-what-you-want basis.

“We’ve been doing this for three and a half years and we’ve fed just over a million people worldwide,” said Smith. “They could have stopped us a long time ago and they didn’t. If they thought it was dangerous they wouldn’t have allowed us to continue trading.”

Smith has been told he could face two months in prison and a £5,000 fine if he is found guilty. Among the items found by trading standards were more than 100 sachets of French dressing, made from oil and vinegar, which were past their use-by date.

Smith said that just because an item was found in one of the warehouses did not mean the charity intended to distribute it for consumption by the public. But he admitted that it sometimes distributed goods that were past their use-by date, as the label is often used incorrectly.

He said last week the charity received lemons and bananas from a supermarket that were fine to eat but had use-by dates that had expired. “That means we could have been prosecuted for giving somebody one of those bananas,” he said.

The trained chef said his charity was “challenging the grey area in the legislation around the safety of food” and that the public was confused about the difference between the various labels given to products, such as “sell by”, “eat before” and “best before”.

“Our instincts provide us with enough to be able to tell if food is off or not,” said Smith. “We want to show that with our skills and knowledge – as chefs and people who have worked in the food industry for a long time – that we can provide this food to anybody and make it safe for consumption.”

A peaceful protest, involving a picnic of waste food, is planned for the day of Smith’s hearing, though a date has not yet been set. The charity has received messages of support from across the food industry, including the TGI Fridays restaurant chain. “They hope we win the case because it will save the industry millions of pounds because we’re throwing so much food away,” he said.



WY TSS said it could not comment on the detail of an ongoing investigation, adding: “The proprietor of RJF Project will be able to put forward information as part of that investigation process. That will help inform the decision on what, if any, action will be taken.

“In relation to the relevant legal provisions, I can confirm the supply of food marked with a ‘use-by’ date after the date marked on the pack is an offence. It is however not an offence to supply foods marked with a best before date beyond the date marked on pack.”