By MATTHEW LEE

WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department says its destruction of 500 metric tons of emergency food aid that was stored in a warehouse in the Middle East was required because it had expired and that the move will not affect the distribution of similar assistance moving forward.

The high energy biscuits — used primarily to provide immediate nutritional needs for children in crisis situations — had been stored in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to respond to emergencies and could no longer be safely sent to potential recipients, so it was destroyed, department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters Thursday.

The issue, first reported by The Atlantic, has been raised repeatedly in congressional hearings this week, with Democratic lawmakers accusing the Trump administration of creating a crisis and ignoring urgent humanitarian needs by suspending most foreign assistance in its first month in office.

The administration already has dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development, the nation’s main agency for distributing food aid abroad, and is currently trying to rescind billions of dollars in foreign assistance. It comes as 319 million people around the world are facing acute hunger, and people in places like Gaza, Sudan, South Sudan, Mali and Haiti are teetering on the brink of starvation, according to the U.N. World Food Program.

Bruce said the amount destroyed was less than 1% of the 1 million metric tons of food assistance that the United States supplies each year and suggested that the destroyed stockpile would be replaced. But she could not say if the Trump administration would continue to provide the 1 million metric tons going forward.

“If something is expired, we will destroy it,” Bruce said, brushing aside appeals for the administration to either distribute the assistance itself or give it to aid agencies who could do so. “It’s a matter of whether or not it’s safe to distribute.”

Bruce said destroying expired stockpiled food — which is generally stored in warehouses near regions or countries at risk for drought, famine and other disasters — are not unprecedented and have occurred under previous administrations that have not pursued draconian cuts in foreign assistance.

The top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Jeanne Shaheen, asked Deputy Secretary of State for Management Michael Rigas on Wednesday about the destruction of the food.

The New Hampshire senator secured a commitment from Rigas to produce an inventory of current food aid stockpiles and a pledge from the administration to try to distribute warehoused assistance before it expires.

“If the State Department doesn’t have the officials to distribute it, let’s give it to other aid organizations so that they can distribute it, so it’s not going to waste and that people are getting the benefit of not only what American taxpayers pay for, but the people who are truly desperate,” Shaheen said.

She noted there are stocks of cooking oil sitting in a Houston port and food aid stored in Djibouti that may soon expire.

Rigas said the administration’s intention was not to deliberately allow food aid to expire and go to waste.