Supermarket record keeping mandate

In this instance, a large supermarket includes any premises used for the retail sale of grocery items and foodstuffs with at least 1,000m² of gross floor area, including both back and front of house. This includes customer fulfilment centres, which store, process and ship grocery items and foodstuffs directly to customers, where these premises have a gross floor area of at least 1,000m².

Supermarkets across NSW use different categories when referring to food types. To ensure consistent food donation categorisation, even if a large supermarket uses different categories, all large supermarkets will need to align with the following 6 food categories from 1 July 2026.

The NSW Government committed to halving organic waste being disposed of in landfill by 2030 under the Waste and Sustainable Materials Strategy 2041. This commitment is part of the broader Australian Government’s net zero commitment.

Greater Sydney is running out of ways to safely manage ‘residual’ (red bin) waste and is predicted to run out of landfill capacity by 2030 or earlier.

The intent of the supermarket record keeping mandate is to incentivise the donation of usable food to avoid food waste.

Read more information about the FOGO mandates.

The NSW supermarket record keeping mandate is the first step towards a consistent approach to food donation, aligning food categories across all the supermarket brands, to better understand how large supermarkets are managing their surplus food across NSW.

Donating food can benefit a business financially, socially and environmentally:

• Financial: save on waste fees by keeping edible food out of the bin
• Social: give back to your community by supporting local food charities
• Environmental: reduce your emissions as every tonne of food saved is equivalent to saving 2.1 tonnes of CO2.

Tracking monthly food donations in a consistent way is an important step to transition the food donation sector into alignment. At the same time, it provides a way to compare supermarkets to better understand why some locations are donating regularly and others are not.

The operator of a large supermarket, meaning the person who controls or manages the supermarket, is responsible for making and keeping the record in the required format. The operator is also responsible for providing those records to the EPA on request. Failing to correctly record this information is an offence.

For consistency, from 1 July 2026, the operators of all large NSW supermarkets must record the amount (kgs) of food donated each calendar month, under 6 food categories:

• baked goods
• meat and fish
• fruit and vegetables
• chilled food
• frozen food; and
• non-perishable food.

If no donations are made in a month, the record should have zero kilograms against that category and/or month.

The supermarket operator must also record the organisation(s) receiving the donations in the same month.

Operators of large supermarkets in NSW will have to record and maintain food donation records whether or not the supermarket donates food.

If starting out, a food waste audit is recommended to understand how much overall food waste is generated at the supermarket, and of that, how much is donatable food.

Once the supermarket operator understands these amounts, they can calculate how much they are currently spending on waste management fees to collect and dispose of their food waste, based on their waste management bill.

Supermarket operators can then focus on an action plan to partner with a local charity to start donating food, reduce their food waste (e.g. changes to ordering quantities or frequencies) and then ensure all remaining food waste is going to an organics facility for processing. More information about the source separation requirements for businesses, including supermarkets, is available on our Business food waste webpage.

The supermarket operator must record each month the:

• type of food donated by category
• amount of food donated in each category
• name of the organisation(s) receiving donated food each calendar month. 

See the response to What format should record keeping take? for an example of what a record should look like. 

Large supermarket operators must record the amount of food donated each month and the organisation they donated food to in the same month (see What donation information must be recorded? for more information on record keeping requirements) but will not be required to provide these records monthly at this stage.

When reporting is required, the EPA will request a copy of a supermarket’s food donation records with the date by which the records must be made available for inspection. The EPA will also inform the supermarket operator if the records are to be inspected in person or submitted to the EPA for a compliance review.

The EPA understands that supermarket operators use different tools and resources to manage stock. Although it’s recommended that supermarket operators record the actual amounts (kgs) of food donated each month, estimated weights will be acceptable, but not preferred. See the response to What format should record keeping take? for an example of what a record should look like.

Food donation records must be kept by the supermarket operator for at least 6 years and must be provided to an EPA authorised officer on request for inspection and/or copying.

Supermarkets are generally made up of a number of internal areas based on the product types and storage requirements, like refrigeration. In some instances, each supermarket area has a different manager overseeing daily operations including inventory and stock management.

Although there are often far more than 6 areas in a supermarket, to simplify recordkeeping, the 6 food categories have been defined to ensure all areas of the supermarket are demonstrating how much food they are donating on an ongoing basis.

Some supermarkets donate large amounts of baked goods, like fresh bread, but nothing else, even if there is other food available for donation. Tracking and monitoring monthly food donations across the 6 categories gives supermarkets the opportunity to understand changes in donated amounts across the differing areas, and storewide, to understand if changes are a result of stock outages, improved efficiencies or something else. 

If donations are dropping and food waste and disposal costs are rising, it could be due to staff turnover. The supermarket can then proactively improve food donation and reduce food waste costs by adding supermarket KPI/store targets for food donations as well as ensuring food donation training is included in all staff onboarding procedures, with frequent refresher training options. 

The EPA is consulting with the NSW supermarket sector to inform the most efficient method and format to record food donation records. At a minimum, store operators should keep records in an excel spreadsheet or similar and submit the file/s to the EPA when requested. 

Download: Example spreadsheet format template (XLXS 34KB)

The legislation allows the EPA to publish any NSW food donation records it has requested.

However, the EPA is aware of the potential sensitivities and risk of misinterpretation in terms of food donation records. For example, decreasing donation amounts could be related to a positive situation such as improved operational efficiencies.