Can I Feed Leftover Food to Animals?

Question: I have been wondering if it is permissible to toss out food that my family could not finish into our yard for animals to come and finish.
We do not want to completely waste food and sometimes miscalculate servings and end up with more. Sometimes certain meats or items spoil quickly, so we end up tossing all this in the yard and animals come to eat it.

Answer:

Assalamu alaykum,

Thank you for your question. This is an important topic as wasting food in an excessive way is potentially sinful. Please try to figure out how to make and serve the right amount of food for your family, while making use of the freezer and techniques to re-purpose leftovers. Elders are particularly good at this. I have seen ladies turn a curry into kabobs and several small amounts of rice, lentils, and frozen meat into Haleem (a meat and lentil stew). And of course, there is nothing better than giving a plate of food away to a neighbor or friend.

The details to your answer are in the following links:
https://seekers.flywheelstaging.com/answers/general-counsel/throwing-away-food/
https://seekers.flywheelstaging.com/answers/hanafi-fiqh/getting-rid-of-spoiled-food/.
https://seekers.flywheelstaging.com/answers/general-counsel/how-to-dispose-of-leftover-food/

May Allah reward you and give you the best in this world and the next.

[Ustadha] Shazia Ahmad

Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Ustadha Shazia Ahmad lived in Damascus, Syria for two years where she studied aqidah, fiqh, tajweed, tafseer, and Arabic. She then attended the University of Texas at Austin, where she completed her Masters in Arabic. Afterward, she moved to Amman, Jordan where she studied fiqh, Arabic, and other sciences. She recently moved back to Mississauga, Canada, where she lives with her family.