PURE INSANITY!!

It's clear that giving away food that has legally expired would cause more hassle than it's worth. This is the age of Lawyers4U after all. From the supermarkets profit point of view and I can see why it's thrown away.

Wasting food seems to be a consequence of our society and wanting everything available 24/7 and perfect. Goods with low shelf life are difficult to maintain and always have available. The supermarket probably overstocked on those spuds but it was Christmas and they had to make the best prediction possible. Imagine if they decided not too and actually ran out on spuds on Christmas eve? You'd have a thread on here titled "OUTRAGEOUS, NO POTATOES?!! WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO THE WORLD???" instead of this one. Not worth the customer dissatisfaction and loss in sales.
 
Ive seen similair to what the op has described but in a dairy plant. Items where packaging has been dented slightly during processing or incorrect amounts per package. All of this stuff is sent to a crusher on site. Quite literally pallets of stuff that havent even been on a supermarket shelf so use/sell by date doesnt matter. Does seem an awful waste.
 
MeEsH BaKkA said:
It's not that hard to understand is it??? It obviously makes more financial sense to bin large quantitiys of fairly low margin food than it is to regularly sell it at a discount driving sales away from the full priced product.
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Yeah I understand that, but why does it have to go in the bin?! Why can't it go to a charity, or the needy. Its not on the shop floor being sold for discounted prices, as you argue will drive down profits, but its not going in the bin. Win win?

chaparral said:
I think your totally insane

I hate to think of how bad a name a super market would get if it started giving away free out of date food to feed the homeless people..
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I'm sorry, are you serious?! If, like in this case as we have discovered, it is not out of date by law, and only by the supermarkets self regulation, this would surely give them a good name? They could go ahead and say "Hey, shop with us, we're ethical and feed the needy". I really fail to understand what your logic behind how they would get a bad name.:confused:


I think, regardless of what reasoning behind why food is thrown away, and why it isn't given away, we can all agree that it is a huge waste of food!
 
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the problem is once its "out of date" charities and the such like, can not risk taking it, in fear of being sued, because thats the sort of world we live in now, our store has had loads of stock left over that we physically just could not sell, even after reducing, every depts waste and markdowns have doubled
 
Haze said:
the problem is once its "out of date" charities and the such like, can not risk taking it, in fear of being sued, because thats the sort of world we live in now, our store has had loads of stock left over that we physically just could not sell, even after reducing, every depts waste and markdowns have doubled
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I know I'm probably going to sound stupid for suggesting this but:... Surely something needs to change regarding the laws around this topic, or a new law introduced that essentially means that the person who consumes the food, does so at their own risk, and doesn't have a case against either the charity or the supermarket.

I know that sounds bad when the charity can just say "Oh yes its from yesterday" when its from a month ago or something of the like that might happen, and the person that consumes the food gets ill, but then that would be essentially misselling something.

So long as the charity ensures that the consumer is told, where the product is from, and when it supposedly went out of date, its up to the consumer as to whether they take it or leave it.
 
dowie said:
its ok these guys will try and get to it - assuming the bins are not locked:

http://freegan.info/
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I was talking with a colleague about this topic during my shift today actually, and he said that actually, people often do go into the bins out the back, after the shop has closed, and even when they are locked, they have a key (Its a simple triangle shape key). He said that it doesn't even look like homeless people that do the majority, if any of this, but just 'any passer by' is how he described it.

Maybe its these guys? I hope it is.
 
Normal activity every day in food sales.

End of the day log all the food that's past the display day and get it into whatever disposal system there is.

Sometimes staff can benefit but a major chain would rather it was destroyed than have a member of the public obtain out of date food from them.

Massive legal risk when its the same write off to the company either way.

Beside any genuine claims, there's not much defence that can be put up against a false claim because you knowingly gave out food past a display date.



In related news there are companies which sell out of date food at a discount to people on the understanding that they are buying out of date food. Typically this is medium to long life items not fresh goods.
 
I have a mate who works in a bakery at a large supermarket.

They sell out of date bread all the time.

Scenario

They sell Tiger bread. When it gets to the sell by date they put it through the slicing machine and now its a new product with a few extra days on it.
 
I work for a major retailer.. the other day we threw out a containers worth of food waste boxes all perfectly fine. The container is 40 foot long. there was 38 boxes and these boxes are huge. Turns my stomach.
 
Hotwired said:
Normal activity every day in food sales.

End of the day log all the food that's past the display day and get it into whatever disposal system there is.

Sometimes staff can benefit but a major chain would rather it was destroyed than have a member of the public obtain out of date food from them.

Massive legal risk when its the same write off to the company either way.

Beside any genuine claims, there's not much defence that can be put up against a false claim because you knowingly gave out food past a display date.



In related news there are companies which sell out of date food at a discount to people on the understanding that they are buying out of date food. Typically this is medium to long life items not fresh goods.
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How difficult would it really be for a supermarket with the infrastructure of say Tesco do follow suit?

http://www.pret.com/sustainability/waste.htm

It's an absolute and utter disgrace, not just the actual disposal of the food but the inefficiency of the controls through which stock levels are maintained. There are people on this planet starving and corporations either don't care about waste or face legal threats which could so easily be mitigated or simply should not exist. The legislation is a joke too, I ate a Kiwi that 'went off' in early November the other day and I didn't die.
I've got so much time for Pret for doing this.
 
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How come Gregg's et al, don't throw away masses of food? They let their shelves get empty by the end of the day if you take a look at their stores, yet they have not lost masses of customers because of this. That's good competent management right there, make the right amount of product you need for the day instead of vastly overstocking.

And does anyone have evidence of even a single legal claim relating to someone eating food donated to a charity etc. because it sounds more like paranoia than anything based on experience.
 
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It's only against the law to sell food past the "Use By" date. Potatoes will only usually have a "Best Before" date which is not against the law to sell after. Although supermarkets and big name shops always seem to have a policy of not selling anything past the "Best Before" as a matter of course.

I don't know which supermarket you are referring too, but I know Morrisons have select seconds bags for things like this. Produce past the best before or simply just past their best quality but still safe to eat. They bung them in these bags and sell em cheap in the reduction section.
 
I wouldn't want to drink milk a week overdue because I've known milk to go off before its due date. However, I have eaten potatoes that are weeks overdue, and I agree with the OP that they should have gone to a food bank.

We have a similar problem at the hospital where I work. Staff are not allowed to eat any meals that patients didn't touch........... because it changes their tax code!! How lame is that? I'm not talking about half-finished plates. They're perfectly good portions (may I repeat that DID NOT get touched by patients) have to go in the bin / waste disposal!
 
mattyg said:
I have a mate who works in a bakery at a large supermarket.

They sell out of date bread all the time.

Scenario

They sell Tiger bread. When it gets to the sell by date they put it through the slicing machine and now its a new product with a few extra days on it.
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See this is a good example of the food prevented from being wasted. I'm not sure it could be applied to fruit and veg and other fresh products, but its good to hear about.

Barks said:
How difficult would it really be for a supermarket with the infrastructure of say Tesco do follow suit?

http://www.pret.com/sustainability/waste.htm
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I respect Pret a lot now that I've seen that, and I think that they have set a good example as to what other large chains can do. I can imagine what they do is the sandwiches they don't sell during the day, they give to a shelter or something, and they give it out perhaps?

This could easily be done with fruit and veg, it passes the display until date, so is passed onto a charity, they cook up something, and people who need it will have eaten for an evening.

Monserrat said:
I wouldn't want to drink milk a week overdue because I've known milk to go off before its due date. However, I have eaten potatoes that are weeks overdue, and I agree with the OP that they should have gone to a food bank.
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I can understand that, I wouldn't expect cream, milk, and other products of the like to go to a food bank, purely because they can be a bit more iffy as to whether they are off or not. But products like potatoes, carrots, parsnips, and some bread products maybe, plus other products in the convenience section too, like pizzas, that are a day or two past it (im not sure if this is actually a use by date, or a display until date) but you get the picture; there are a LOT of products that will be perfectly edible a couple of days past the use by/display until date, and I'm sure somebody who doesn't have food for the night, wont turn their nose up at it.

Monserrat said:
We have a similar problem at the hospital where I work. Staff are not allowed to eat any meals that patients didn't touch........... because it changes their tax code!! How lame is that? I'm not talking about half-finished plates. They're perfectly good portions (may I repeat that DID NOT get touched by patients) have to go in the bin / waste disposal!
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Granted this is a waste of food, but I can somewhat understand the reasoning behind this. In a hospital where viruses can be prominent, taking food into a patients room/ward, it could potentially come into contact with molecules that are carrying/contain a virus, so after taking the food out of the kitchen, it should be considered consumed.
 
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