Asalam Alykoum warahmatu Allahu,What is the ruling of a pizza shop throwing leftover unused pizza dough.Jazakum Allahu khier.

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

If the dough is good, and the poor and the needy can benefit from it, or can be used for feeding animals, then it should not be thrown away because throwing it away in this case is wasting money; a matter that is forbidden in the Hadeeth, which reads:

“Allah hates that you do three things: engaging in gossip, wasting wealth, and asking too many (useless) questions.” [Al-Bukhari and Muslim]

The Fatwa of the Permanent Committee for Iftaa’ reads:

“Food and meat that remains in the restaurant which is edible, and which the municipality forbids selling it, then it is neither permissible to sell it nor to throw it, as long as it is possible to benefit from it. This can be by donating it to the needy as charity, either by delivering it directly to them or through a charity organization.” [End of quote]

The Fatwa of the Permanent Committee for Iftaa’ also reads:

“Leftover food should be respected and given to anyone who can eat it, whether a person or an animal. If there is no one who needs it, then it should be placed in a clean place (not in the trash).” [End of quote]

However, if the dough is rotten and not edible, then there is no harm in throwing it. Yet, it should not be thrown in a dirty place; rather, it should be placed in a place so that people know that food is respected. There are some Ahadeeth that encourage respecting food and not despising it, like the Hadeeth that reads: “Respect bread.” [Al-Haakim, Al-Bayhaqi and Al-Albaani classfied it as Hassan in some of his books]

Additionally, 'Aa'ishah narrated: “The Prophet entered the house and saw a piece of bread that was thrown (on the floor). He picked it up, wiped it and ate it, and said: ‘O ‘Aa'ishah, show honor to the precious (i.e. food), for if the blessing of food departs from people, it never comes back.’” [Ibn Maajah with an inauthentic chain of narration]

Shaykh Ibn 'Uthaymeen said:

“As for what is not edible, there is nothing wrong in throwing it, such as peels of oranges, apples, bananas, etc., because it is not respected in itself. Nonetheless, what is edible, such as the remains of bread, soup, and the like, then it should not be thrown in dirty places. Yet, if one must throw it in the rubbish bin, then it should be placed in a special plastic bag so that the cleaners would know that it is respected.” [End of quote]

Allah knows best.