[forest]

My wife works for Waitrose. Apparently the amount of 'out of date' food that is binned is criminal. Why is this food not composted and sold in store is beyond me. Our local council has a composting machine which composts material in 24hrs using steam. Stores could use this facility.
It just seems a waste that it is sent to landfill.

Forest

[brucesgirl]

I read an article in Dads Yours magazine of people who live on the stuff the supermarkets throw away. They get it at night and it is still perfectly eatable - but it is classed as stealing!!

What a waste - that should be the criminal act, not taking it.

[slowef]

they used to give it away to homeless shelters but a tramp sued because he got ill and blamed the food, no helping some people, blame todays "sue them society"

[oakfairy]

waitrose used to give us the out of date fruit and veg for our iguanas, but suddenly they stopped and when i asked the manager why, he said that there was a risk it could end up back in the human food chain. they won't allow this in case someone sues. the decision is company wide i think. can't blame them for covering themselves but you would think they would get a scheme going to compost it and give it back to their farmers, they have a pretty good reputation for giving their suppliers a fair deal, thats why i shop there.
it's the rediculous few that make it hard for anyone to have any common sense in this world...... sad    but true

[gobs]

Very difficult with the regulations, that are necessary for companies and associations in this world of barmy compensation claims and etc.

I offered as private person, and then as the lottie Association spare vegetables to the shelters, etc. Nobody would take any, because of regulations.

[naturesparadise]

i worked for a BIG supermarket i was on produce for 3 years

and i can tell you this alot of what people payed for was out of date

it was one of there unwritten laws if it still looks good put it back out

carrots was one the pre bagged ones went into the lose bin

the things they did i am shocked no one got sick

[Sally A]

I reckon that's a good idea, people won't pick up the manky carrots from the loose box anyhow, and I've never heard of anyne being off ill through a dodgy carrot.

I know some supermarkets used to mince up the sell by beef joints and repackage them though - that's far more risky than the fruit & veg section.

[brucesgirl]

When I was a Saturday girl in 1969 we used to cut all the hard bits off the cheese and sell  it grated!

We also had to sort out the mouse poo from the salted peanuts before we loaded them into the dispenser jar thingy.

I swear this is true, but I'd better not tell you where I worked!

[EzLou]

Our local Sainsburys donates all theirs to an animal sanctuary.

The really rotten stuff gets chucked - but the pigs will eat anything and tuck right into the stale bagels etc.

Obviously all the animals are rescued so no danger of getting back into the food chain

If its fresh enough the guinea pigs rabbits etc get lots of the salad/veggies. But the thing that goes to waste is potatoes. Very few of the pigs will eat them and you arent supposed to give them to rodents [cant remember why]