Allegheny Co. Health Department changing food safety regulations, could impact local organizations

PITTSBURGH — Almost every day, stores like Giant Eagle or neighborhood restaurants end the day with extra food.

“In a nutshell, we are the Uber Eats, Instacart, DoorDash, Amazon of surplus food,” said Leah Lizarondo, the CEO and founder of 412 Food Rescue.

412 Food Rescue takes that surplus of food and delivers it to people in need, whether to an individual or an entire housing development.

“Our volunteers have taken over 100,000 deliveries successfully and 20 million pounds of food in the Greater Pittsburgh region,” Lizarondo said.

It’s a new avenue of food rescue to help even more people, and it’s a technology that has spread to 16 other cities.

“It’s not anymore just refrigerated trucks and vans,” Lizarondo told Channel 11.

Now, the Allegheny County Health Department is making changes to food safety regulations for the first time in 22 years.

The big impact on food rescue includes changes to how you can transport donated food.

“As originally written, it would have made our operations impossible here in Pittsburgh,” Lizarondo said.

Pittsburgh Bureau of Fire assisting with local food insecurity

Lizarondo and other food rescue groups immediately started working with the Health Department so the board could see that there are new models to delivery, and it can be done safety from a private car.

“We’ve met with a number of stakeholders with food rescue, and we are confident our changes in the code will continue to support these efforts,” said Otis Pitts, Deputy Director for the Bureau of Food Safety, Housing and Policy.

The hope is that the changes to the proposal will benefit these organizations, rather than hurt them.

“If there is any misunderstanding, we are more than happy to revisit our proposal and make sure those who are active in this area and do great work can do their work with great confidence,” Pitts said.

The board is looking for public comment on the proposed changes. You can submit those changes here through Monday.

The board will review those comments and make changes before a final vote on the regulations in March.

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