Dunkin's Food Waste Policy Rubs Customers The Wrong Way — What Happens To Its Unsold Food?

With over 10,000 locations in the United States and more overseas, Dunkin' prepares an enormous volume of donuts, bagels, and more daily. Inevitably, some of that goes unsold. So what happens to it? Well, if you're someone who despises food waste, you won't like the answer. Dunkin' has an "End of Day Donation" program where franchisees can optionally donate leftovers to local organizations like food banks. But the keyword here is "optional." Dunkin's corporate office leaves the decision completely up to individual franchisees as to whether or not they donate leftover food. (And all Dunkin' stores are franchises, if you were wondering.)

There's little to prevent Dunkin' owners from donating their food: The U.S. has a federal law in place that protects them from being made liable, say, in the event that somebody gets sick from eating a day-old cruller. And yet, it appears that some Dunkin' franchisees choose to throw it away regardless, perhaps for reasons like the cost of arranging donations. This drew substantial attention in 2021, when a Dunkin' worker posted a video of her throwing away 30 trays of donuts. She hypothesized that the food waste was because she or the store could be held legally liable; however, the law limiting that liability has been in place since the '90s. Such incidents tend to draw ire online, with no shortage of commenters sharing them and condemning the chain's wastefulness.

Frankly, without surveying every Dunkin' owner, it's impossible to say what proportion donate leftovers as opposed to throwing them out. But it's worth noting that the previous video isn't isolated. In 2021, a teenage Dunkin' employee uploaded an Instagram video of him throwing out hundreds of donuts, which he said happened regularly. He said he decided to give them away to homeless people, and was reportedly fired for violating his store's protocol. It's not hard to find other incidents, such as a photo on Reddit of a pile of discarded pastries quite literally in front of a Dunkin' sign. It seems to extend to Dunkin's overseas stores too, as a 2022 photo by 20Minuten showed a literal dumpster full of donuts outside a production facility in Switzerland.

That said, since franchisees can opt to donate, the problems aren't ubiquitous: There are indications that some stores sell leftovers at a discount via the "Too Good To Go" app, which aims to cut back on food waste. Discussion threads online also feature people claiming to be current or former Dunkin' employees, and their experiences seem to vary between stores that give away leftovers versus stores that allegedly don't even let staff take leftovers home. Dunkin' customers seem to have reason to be upset by this. There are other chains like KFC that donate food, and Pizza Hut has a national system in place. Yet Dunkin' is hardly alone, as Starbucks has a similar leftover food policy that varies by location, for instance.