What Does Raising Cane's Do With Leftover Food?

According to The World Counts, roughly 1.3 billion tons of food are wasted every year, and that's including food viable for human consumption. While individual households contribute to this number, some of the largest contributors include restaurants, shops, and supermarkets, among poor transportation and storage methods. That's why when Raising Cane's employees on social media started posting photos and videos of the quantifiable amount of food waste coming from the leftover food at multiple Cane's locations, people started paying attention.

Although Raising Cane's has some famously craveable chicken, the media has been in an uproar about the "insane chicken waste," as one Redditor put it, that comes from the restaurants. "I've worked here for years at multiple restaurants, and all Cane's waste a minimum of 20 pounds of food per day, usually much, much more than that of just the bird and fries," said one employee on Reddit. Another employee posted a photo to a Raising Cane's Reddit chain showing a large food service container filled to the brim with wasted "perfectly fine bird." "Unfortunately, my restaurant's waste is a lot worse," said a comment on the thread, while another agreed that their store "dump[s] 3 of these [containers] to 4 PER DAY." Social media discussions about Raising Cane's' alleged waste span hundreds of comments sharing similar stories, including another Redditor who said they have "huge bags of Chicken Fingers that go into the garbage because the breading isn't per company standards."

While employees raised concerns about Raising Cane's leftover food, and several news sources have picked up the story, the fast food giant has yet to make an official statement addressing the comments. On its website, Raising Cane's says it "supports thousands of local and national causes, organizations and events each year," including "key areas" such as "Feeding the Hungry." While the chain earned acclaim for not laying off any employees during the pandemic (among 12 other facts about Raising Cane's every fried chicken enthusiast should know), the restaurant is quickly losing public favor over these viral social media posts showing food waste.

Many customers don't understand why the brand won't donate the leftover food to people in need, but others were quick to point out that doing so may be unsafe. "Say they do give it to a shelter and someone contracts food poisoning from it (whether it's Cane's fault or the shelter's), that opens up grounds for a lawsuit against Cane's," said one Redditor. Another Reddit user also considered food safety, saying, "you'd inevitably donate chicken that is below healthy food standards (in the danger zone for too long)." Other users were quick to bring up the federal Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act, which could protect Raising Cane's from legal troubles if they were to donate said leftover food. After all, five states have already made it illegal to throw food away, which could technically apply to Raising Cane's locations.