Shop throwing out items, yes please!

[Equi]

In buying my dinner and I passed an employee with a cart full of fruit and veg throwing it all in the bin. I asked if I could buy the apples and turnips cause they’ll be grand for the horses (didn’t look like anything majorly wrong with any of them!) so I got about 6 turnips and a full bag of apples for 10p!

She said to call in again because she hates throwing away food but if it won’t sell it gets tossed.

 

[Lois Lame]

Oh, I wish this shop was near me. I hate waste and my tiger worms would love it.

 

[meleeka]

My local Co-op wouldn’t sell me out of date food. They said it has to to go in the bin, company policy ?. I wanted some fruit and veg for my pigs, but understandably didn’t want to pay loads for it. It put me right off that shop.

 

[Cragrat]

Great that you got them, but just seems so wrong that food like that is being thrown out.

I would suggest a foodbank, but I have become a little disillisioned. A friend was harvesting spuds, and bagging them up in sacks. Feeling generous, he took a few sacks down to the local food bank. They rejected them, sayng they only acccepted processed food such as chips/frozen roasties etc! Apparently people who use food banks don't want to have to wash and peel them first.

 

[J&S]

I heard a shoot offered a food bank some pheasants..... rejected.

 

[Barton Bounty]

I know that in restaurants/cafes etc your not allowed to give food away , poor reasoning is food poisoning. I get it, but there are people that are hungry too. We used to chuck hundreds out.

 

[Equi]

I’ve been in a fruit/veg shop lately and asked for exdisplay apples etc and they were very willing to give them (I didn’t get there in time but they told me to come back) It’s maybe the small local places that are more willing vs the big cooperations.

Everyone is terrified of being sued. It’s sad. So much food just goes to waste. Mum punched one of the turnips for her dinner.

 

[Barton Bounty]

Yeah, I think so, a small cafe would be more likely to give out .
I get apples and carrots from the glasgow fruit market ? £3 for carrots and £4 for a massive box of apples

 

[Equi]

Pinched* can’t edit for some reason. Mum hasn’t been assaulting a turnip.

 

[horsimous]

The riding stables I worked in as a teenager used to get whatever the local bakery was throwing out (for their pigs). I dare say most of our lunches were from this stash and yes, I did get food poisoning once. Looking back I think about whether that food might have been dropped on the floor ?‍

 

[Lois Lame]

What's odd to me is that pigs cannot be fed swill anymore. It's a complete waste of food that it gets thrown out, AND pigs (I am sure) much preferred the swill to the so-called balanced stuff they get now.

 

[Spottyappy]

I was in our Our local Tesco after it had had a massive power outage recently.
The freezers and fridges were all empty, and I asked a staff member if they- as staff- were allowed to take the food in that situation. Apparently not, as ”the law” states once the food has been cold for over 20 minutes, it has to be thrown out. Which is beyond ridiculous as it would likely be in my trolley longer than that by the time I have checked out, never mind got home.
The Olio app, however, is awesome, and I have managed to get quite a decent haul of food from that. It is the food that shops would otherwise send to landfill, taken by volunteers (who are allowed to keep 10% of what they take) who then list it online for people to collect, for free.
Oddly, much of that is often fridge food, too…..

 

[LEC]

I heard a shoot offered a food bank some pheasants..... rejected.

They have to be very careful with what they offer as needs to be properly processed (best before dates etc). They cannot hand out homemade jam etc as it might not have been processed hygienically and could cause food poisoning or allergic reactions.
It’s a tricky area so I can understand their reticence, they don’t know how long those pheasant might have been lying about and let’s be honest how many people know how to properly prepare them? Let alone if someone swallowed shot and it caused problems….
They deal in large volumes so want it to be easy. Also a lot of the customers literally have no clue on how to cook vegetables etc. they want easy convenience food as what they know.

 

[asmp]

This is why GoodToGo is such a good idea. I was horrified some time ago watching a woman in a local Sainsbury tipping all the leftover fresh cakes in the bin ?. When I was young I used to stop at the local bakery on the way home and get a bag for cakes for a few pence.

There are also so many apples going to waste around my area, rotting on the ground ?.

 

[Season’s Bleatings]

Great that you got them, but just seems so wrong that food like that is being thrown out.

I would suggest a foodbank, but I have become a little disillisioned. A friend was harvesting spuds, and bagging them up in sacks. Feeling generous, he took a few sacks down to the local food bank. They rejected them, sayng they only acccepted processed food such as chips/frozen roasties etc! Apparently people who use food banks don't want to have to wash and peel them first.

It probably isn’t a “don’t want to” but perhaps “can’t” - maybe lacking the knowledge or facilities… I don’t think anyone treats a trip to a food bank like an afternoon visit to Waitrose.

 

[OrangeAndLemon]

Waitrose discount massively to sell any food going out of date. They keep reducing through the evening so something might start at 10% off and finish the night at a cost of a few pence.

Any bunches of flowers past their best before and not sold discounted, are given away free to customers.

I assume there is a cost to them of having waste removed so it's in their interest to reduce waste.

 

[twiggy2]

Our local coop (northen highlands) gives all out of date and end of use by date item to the local food bank, they pride themselves on throwing nothing in the bin, even flowers etc.
Coop in southern England would not donate anything despite being pushed hard by an employee, they threw everything in the bin.

 

[Gamebird]

What's odd to me is that pigs cannot be fed swill anymore. It's a complete waste of food that it gets thrown out, AND pigs (I am sure) much preferred the swill to the so-called balanced stuff they get now.

They may have preferred it, but stopping swill feeding was a major step in controlling foot and mouth disease. Anyone from a farming background who lived through the absolute horror of FMD (and sadly some people didn't survive it) will be right behind the swill feeding ban,

 

[Gamebird]

I heard a shoot offered a food bank some pheasants..... rejected.

I can absolutely see why this happened, and unfortunately I don't think there's a way round it. I suspect the pheasants would have ended up being thrown out by the food bank anyway as people just don't have the skills to tackle them.

It's also worth remembering that fuel poverty has a major role to play. Things that require being cooked in an oven or on a hob for a long time are not much use to people who can't afford to turn the oven on or leave a casserole bubbling on the hob for an hour or two.

 

[ycbm]

Isn't this going to be the difference between Best Before dates and Use By dates?

They can sell/donate anything past a Best Before but nobody should give away or sell food past a Use By date, they might kill someone vulnerable.
.

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

The M & S near me really reduces stuff at the end of the day its the best time to go and pick up a lovely dinner for the evening.

 

[LEC]

Isn't this going to be the difference between Best Before dates and Use By dates?

They can sell/donate anything past a Best Before but nobody should give away or sell food past a Use By date, they might kill someone vulnerable.
.

Correct. I was told by food hygiene specialist that you would be amazed at the amount of bacteria that increases just after use by dates and how rapidly it escalates from being in a fridge especially anything which hasn’t been processed like raw meat etc.

 

[SantaVera]

The riding stables I worked in as a teenager used to get whatever the local bakery was throwing out (for their pigs). I dare say most of our lunches were from this stash and yes, I did get food poisoning once. Looking back I think about whether that food might have been dropped on the floor ?‍

was it Oak Hill Daisy Nook in the 1960s? they kept pigs and had a little cafe

 

[Widgeon]

Our local coop (northen highlands) gives all out of date and end of use by date item to the local food bank, they pride themselves on throwing nothing in the bin, even flowers etc.
Coop in southern England would not donate anything despite being pushed hard by an employee, they threw everything in the bin.

I was going to say the same, I think it's very much related to whether the manager and staff are sensible people. I've had dirt cheap stuff from the CoOp before because it was on the Use-By date, and Waitrose too - my dad used to do a lot of our food shopping from Waitrose for pennies, when we were little. Which was good because we couldn't have afforded the actual prices! (The peculiarities of growing up in Surrey where the only local supermarket in walking distance was a Waitrose). Was fine so long as you ate it or froze it that night.

 

[Quigleyandme]

What's odd to me is that pigs cannot be fed swill anymore. It's a complete waste of food that it gets thrown out, AND pigs (I am sure) much preferred the swill to the so-called balanced stuff they get now.

I think that has a lot to do with swine vesicular and foot and mouth diseases which was spread by feeding food waste.

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

They have to be very careful with what they offer as needs to be properly processed (best before dates etc). They cannot hand out homemade jam etc as it might not have been processed hygienically and could cause food poisoning or allergic reactions.
It’s a tricky area so I can understand their reticence, they don’t know how long those pheasant might have been lying about and let’s be honest how many people know how to properly prepare them? Let alone if someone swallowed shot and it caused problems….
They deal in large volumes so want it to be easy. Also a lot of the customers literally have no clue on how to cook vegetables etc. they want easy convenience food as what they know.

And, especially in the current crisis, often need food that doesn't need to be cooked before being eaten, so tinned goods, which can be eaten cold are most appropriate.

 

[Getbackboys]

that was great for you, bigger supermarkets need to wake up and relook at policies the world is starving, i can understand meat

 

[Pippity]

Someone on my yard works at a local supermarket, so often brings down a crate of carrots/apples/parsnips/etc. for the horses. (Blue is always mightily offended she doesn't get any but it's her own fault for having PSSM.)

 

[onemoretime]

My local Co-op wouldn’t sell me out of date food. They said it has to to go in the bin, company policy ?. I wanted some fruit and veg for my pigs, but understandably didn’t want to pay loads for it. It put me right off that shop.

Our Co-op is the same. Hubby tried to get the out of date carrots but no!

 

[Birker2020]

I hate food waste. The food banks in our region are calling out for help with donations.

We do a collection at work and I contribute weekly or at least try to when I remember. A couple of tins isn't much to me but is everything to someone on a very limited budget whose family is struggling.

The government needs to do more to help food banks.