Ask Jon: Can I Reuse or Donate Cheese and Charcuterie Leftover on a Board?

Jonathan Deutsch

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Jonathan Deutsch, Ph.D., CHE, CRC is Professor/Vice Chair of Health Sciences, which encompasses Culinary, Food, Nutrition, Exercise and Health Sciences at Drexel University. He is the Founding Program Director of Drexel’s Food Innovation and Entrepreneurship Programs. He is a classically trained chef and co-author or -editor of eight books including Barbecue: A Global History (with Megan Elias), Culinary Improvisation, and The Anti-Inflammatory Family Cookbook, and articles in journals of food studies, public health and hospitality education.

Dear Jon: Can I reuse or donate cheese and charcuterie from a board for a private party if it’s mostly untouched? It’s at least $200 worth of product!

Food waste is a serious environmental, financial, and social problem. Between one-third and 40 percent of food produced in the U.S. is never eaten. But between Thanksgiving and New Years, these numbers increase by as much as 25 percent. According to the Upcycled Food Association, wasted food totals one billion tons annually and generates 6 percent of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions.

Large cheese and charcuterie boards like yours are common culprits for food waste in restaurants and catering, especially during the holiday season. Though beautiful, tasty, and trendy, they are rarely fully consumed, and once served, they have had lots of guests around them, making them unfit for donation or repurposing. Sadly, because you served that board and it was exposed to potential contamination from guests, it should not be donated. The World Wildlife Fund’s report, “Fighting Food Waste in Hospitality and Foodservice” suggests strategies like preparing smaller or even individual portions of charcuterie, which can be elegant while keeping the excess product in the kitchen, where it can be used for subsequent parties. That would have been a good solution in this case.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) uses the Wasted Food Scale to help businesses, as well as consumers, prevent and minimize food waste. At the top of the scale is “Prevent Wasted Food.” Are there changes you can make to forecasting or production to prevent this surplus food in the first place? For example, if you track your surplus and find that you consistently have leftovers, maybe you could prepare less, improving your margins and reducing waste while maintaining guest satisfaction. It sounds simple, but have you really measured what comes back to the dish station uneaten?

Elias Bitar, chef/owner of Norma’s in Cherry Hill, N.J. says, “We try to be a zero waste kitchen. Make it on demand and make it fresh. That gives us better margins so we can donate fresh food, which is always preferable."

Some surplus food is inevitable, and that’s where the EPA recommends donating excess product if it can’t be sold. Many chefs and restaurateurs are under the misconception that donating food brings an additional risk of liability. What if you donate food in good faith and someone says it made them sick? Since 1996, the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act has provided liability protection for restaurants. In 2023, these productions were further strengthened by the bipartisan Food Donation Improvement Act.

While you may have liability protection in donating some food, it doesn’t mean it’s a free-for-all. Be sure the food you donate is of the same high standards for food safety and quality you would maintain if serving it to a paying guest. Matt Jozwiak, Founder and CEO of New York-based ReThink Food, which works with restaurants to accept and repurpose surplus food says, “When restaurants or excess food providers partner with us, we look for food donations that are suitable for human consumption—freshly prepared, properly stored, and transported…within safe temperature ranges. We prioritize donations that are less than four hours old, have been kept at appropriate temperatures, and come from kitchens with rigorous food handling practices.”

Cooking is a lot of work. There is nothing more demoralizing in this busy season than seeing the food cost, labor cost, mental effort, and passion that goes into good cooking end up in the trash. Use a combination of forecasting, tracking, upcycling, and donation to honor those efforts.