PURE INSANITY!!
- Thread starter mattyjim123
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Nope, obviously not. Because hey, in their mind, if we get sick, we can sue!
I found a delicious ready made wrap that had been reduced that day, as it went out of date at the end of the day. My shift finished after the shop closed. I found said wrap after the shop had closed, and asked my manager if I could take it home for my dinner. He's the best out of my 4 managers, and even he, in all his sense, said nope, if you did, I would report you, because if they found out that I knew, I would probably have action taken against me.
In this scenario, which happens quite often:
- The food technically wasnt out of date yet, as it was still the day that it is to be consumed by.
- It cannot be bought by a customer, as the shop is closed.
- I couldn't have caused it to go out of date so, it isn't me that has scandalously caused this, for my own gain.
But, as before, it's theft. LOGIC.
If you were a charity would you use out of date food? You'd be liable if someone became ill.
What about using out of date medicine?
Potatoes are never marked with "best before" dates. "Use by" is nearly always used on fresh or prepared (chilled) food. You'll usually only see "best before" on ambient products.
You won't catch a supermarket deliberately selling any product after the "best before" date, they're usually marked down at least a couple of days (or weeks) before.
im sure it was in the papers a while ago about shops/stores throwing away out of date food and that it could go to the homless etc, they would do it but wont because they could get sued for giving people out of date food etc (even though it was free)
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I should have made this clearer, when I say of date, I mean the 'Display until' date.
Its actually funny, because on the loose items (I work in fruit and veg) we ignore the display until date, that's on the ticket attached to the box. We do it completely on quality check. The golden rule is: If you wouldn't buy it, then bin it. Which I think is fair.
One time, not long ago, a colleague (that has been working there for over 5 years now) and I had a situation where a load of packaged leeks went out of date the day before, so we sat there for a good 10 minutes, un-packaging them all and sold them as loose leeks. Thank god we weren't caught to be honest..
Soldato
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Again why not as long as acceptable disclaimers/criteria is in place. If you can't afford/don't have access to in date life saving medicine would you not happily take the risk of taking something a little out of date?
Fully aware of the supply/demand chain and reasons why the likes of Tesco have to ensure shelves are filled; Yes it makes financial sense to them and its an acceptable business loss, but is it ethical? Personally I don't think it is.
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This is true. I'm pretty sure most of the items in our fruit and veg department only have the display until date on them, the date at which they throw the food out is for the customer to decide.
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Soldato
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use by is required on a very small amount of edibles, I can think of no raw vegetables that are required to carry a use by date. In fact, iirc, raw fruit and vegetables are not specifically required to carry a best before date at all.
Edit; doesnt read as I thought it would.
Additionally, as a point of note, the display until and sell by dates are almost entirely for stock control purposes.
Edit; doesnt read as I thought it would.
Additionally, as a point of note, the display until and sell by dates are almost entirely for stock control purposes.
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You know its also somewhat ironic to be honest. Sometimes there will be the odd punnet of strawberries or the like, that are about 3 days in date, but have white mould growing on it. Of course we take it off the shelf, because nobody would buy it. But technically, we could sell it, somebody would eat it and get ill, but because its in date, we're not responsible.
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The display until date, isn't 'entirely for stock control purposes'.
By law, (As I am told) we are not allowed to sell goods after the 'Display until' date. If we could, then I wouldn't have been throwing all these potatoes out in the first place!
Soldato
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You've been misinformed fella. The only two labels with legal status are use by and best before. You can sell after a best before but never after a use by.
I find this absolutely disgusting. Such a waste of a perfectly good natural resource.
I live near a very large Tescos. It sickens me that all the pumpkins they don't sell in October are slung away come 1st November since no-one wants to carve faces out of them. These are perfectly good vegetables, in season, which you can do a hell of a lot with in Autumn. But no, because Halloween is over, it's time to sling them out, these things which have spent weeks growing, because one day on the calendar has passed. Same with chestnuts. It's past Xmas, we're in the throat of Winter, but let's get rid of them all because Santa has slung his hook to Lapland for another 12 months. There are at least two months of Winter still to come.
Sickening. But that's the majors for you. We'll all keep going there, nothing will change. There should be a better channel for this wastage though. At least Pret give their sandwiches to the homeless.
I live near a very large Tescos. It sickens me that all the pumpkins they don't sell in October are slung away come 1st November since no-one wants to carve faces out of them. These are perfectly good vegetables, in season, which you can do a hell of a lot with in Autumn. But no, because Halloween is over, it's time to sling them out, these things which have spent weeks growing, because one day on the calendar has passed. Same with chestnuts. It's past Xmas, we're in the throat of Winter, but let's get rid of them all because Santa has slung his hook to Lapland for another 12 months. There are at least two months of Winter still to come.
Sickening. But that's the majors for you. We'll all keep going there, nothing will change. There should be a better channel for this wastage though. At least Pret give their sandwiches to the homeless.
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You're right, was getting my wires crossed with the "Display until" dates; fresh prepared food (and meat) would have Use By dates but produce generally had Display Until and Best Before. No idea if other retailers do it differently but Sainsbury's used to have the Display Until date a couple of days before whatever the second date was to give the customer a few days to use it.
How often does it happen?
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Well I apologise, either way, we still throw it out, because we aren't allowed to sell it past that date.
Do clarify for me though what you mean by legal status?
You say best before has legal status, but you can sell it after that? What the hell is the bloody point in it then?
http://www.statisticbrain.com/world-hunger-statistics/
The injustice of it all is shocking really. I cannot claim to be any better or worse as I live quietly and comfortably in my own little world, consuming and wasting.
The injustice of it all is shocking really. I cannot claim to be any better or worse as I live quietly and comfortably in my own little world, consuming and wasting.
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I work 3 days a week, I either work on fruit and veg, or other fresh produce (Such as ready meals, bread, etc.).
When not on fruit and veg, I often get 3-4 items that I personally find in what is often the evening shift. Between all of us finding them, there are on average I would say about 20 items thrown out, that are perfectly edible, on this 4 hour evening shift.
When I'm working on fruit and veg, I will be back and forth my whole shift, getting rid of the odd thing I find on the shelf that hasn't sold after a reduction from yesterday, that the operations team have missed. Sometimes of course, its a whole box/tray of stuff that is past the date, and so probably once every 2 weeks, I personally will have to throw about 20-30 of the same item out in one go.
I have a friend on operations that I often see with 10+ items to be thrown out. I see this several times a shift, and she often mentions how much she's just thrown in the bin.
Where I'm talking about the stuff that I find, that is just stuff that operations hasn't got round to yet, or have missed. So what I find is only a portion essentially.
It doesn't bother me because I personally have to throw it out, just that so much perfectly good food goes to waste.
I hope that gives you some idea about how often not only I have to throw things out, but how often things are actually thrown out by the team who's job it is to get rid of the out of date food.
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Soldato
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Don't apologise for performing your duties and accepting the information you are given.
OK, legally, 'use by' is used on goods that perish quickly and rapidly become hazardous beyond that point, eg meat, milk etc. Best before is an indicator of quality, the date should be calculated by the manufacturer such that the goods are of a good, reasonably consistent quality up to that date. Beyond that date the goods will still be, generally, safe to consume (for a variable length of time...depends on what the item is) but the quality will deteriorate somewhat from what could be expected prior to that date.
Of course both use by and best before are entirely dependent on the merchant following the manufacturers storage instructions.