Food destruction and beverage product disposal

What is food destruction?

Food destruction is the controlled withdrawal of unsellable food and beverage products from the market and their destruction or recycling at a licensed facility. Products past their expiry date, spoiled in storage, damaged in packaging or subject to a recall decision all fall within this scope. Scrap runs food destruction in line with the regulations and documents every step from collection to the destruction minutes.

Quietly getting rid of an expired product creates serious risk. The Turkish Food Codex treats food past its use-by date as unsafe food, and Law No. 5996 bans its placement on the market. In an official inspection, officials who find such a product on the market impose an administrative fine and seize it. We explain the procedure step by step in our article on expired food disposal.

Which food and beverage products are destroyed?

Any food or beverage product that cannot be sold or must not stay on the market falls within the scope. These are the groups we meet most often:

• Liquid beverages: beverages that are past their expiry date or have spoiled.
• Solid foods: expired, damaged or recalled solid foods.
• Semi-solid foods: products exposed to temperature fluctuation or with a quality problem.
• Risky, contraband and counterfeit products: batches we destroy so they cannot return to the market.
• Organic foods: products we route to biogas plants for energy production.
• Packaging: branded food and beverage packaging, which we sort and send to recycling facilities.

Food destruction methods

First we assess the product through an inventory and risk analysis. Then we choose the method by the condition of the product, so every recoverable material returns to the economy.

The outcome is written item by item in the destruction minutes. See recycling options in our article on waste management in the food sector.

Legal basis of food destruction

Food destruction touches food, environmental and tax legislation at once, so we set up the process with all three in mind.

• Food: Law No. 5996 bans the placement of unsafe food on the market. The food business operator sets up a traceability system and keeps requested records up to date. The Regulation on Official Controls on Food and Feed and Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry inspections complete this framework.
• Environment: the Waste Management Regulation requires waste to be collected separately, recorded and sent to a facility holding a permit or environmental license. For this reason we destroy products only at facilities licensed by the Ministry of Environment. The regulation excludes some animal by-products from its scope, so we recommend expert advice for meat, milk and eggs.
• Tax: Article 278 of the Tax Procedure Law provides that the value of goods whose worth has fallen significantly is set by the Valuation Commission. Article 278/A covers goods that must be destroyed for reasons such as expiry. The assessment and the destruction minutes are the basis for expensing the stock cost.
• VAT: Article 30/c of the VAT Law governs VAT on lost goods. For destroyed goods, the tax office and the Council of State hold different views; choose the route with your accountant once the documents are in hand. Details: VAT on destroyed goods.

Food destruction minutes and reporting

The destruction minutes are the official record of which product we destroyed, in what quantity, on what date and by which method. At Scrap the minutes come as part of a document set:

• application documents and the assessment record we draw up with the authorities,
• the official destruction minutes,
• photo and video records of every batch,
• steps tracked throughout on the Online Tracking System,
• the Sustainable Transformation Report: recovery and carbon data that feed directly into your ESG reporting.

This set answers “was the product really destroyed?” with a single file, in tax audits and official inspections alike. See branded packaging in our article on label and logo packaging disposal.

Expired food: wastage or destruction?

The two are different concepts. Wastage is the physical loss a product suffers by its own nature during production or storage; it is continuous and predictable. According to the tax administration, normal wastage is not treated as lost goods. If the normal wastage rate is exceeded, Article 30/c of the VAT Law applies to the excess. We explain this in our article on VAT when normal wastage is exceeded.

Expired food is a different situation. The date makes the product unsellable, so it counts as goods that must be destroyed; Article 278/A covers that. So we do not pool every item in one account. We keep wastage and destruction as separate items, each with its documents, and we recommend deciding with your accountant which item belongs where.

How food destruction works with Scrap

The process starts with the request form. We first run an inventory and risk analysis, then present the proposal. We prepare the application documents, file the applications with the authorities, inspect the products on site and draw up the assessment record with the officials. Then we move the products in sealed ADR vehicles; organic products go to licensed biogas plants and packaging waste to recycling. Typical duration is about 21 business days. At the end you receive the minutes, photo and video records and the Sustainable Transformation Report; for every food and beverage destruction project a tree is planted and a child joins a nature education programme.