My anger at supermarket chains
 

I am sure that when people got to supermarkets, they often go to the 'discount ' section, but what l am starting this thread on, is the amount food products, each supermaket throws away EACH DAY, l entered a store today, and saw with my own eyes, this occuring, and when l spoke to the member of staff, he told me it was company policy. Why don't these stores on a daily basis, give these products to the needy, ie OAP's, the unemployed, and the needy, who don't have a home, l once saw an OAP, being arrested for stealing a loaf of bread, yet they were throwing bread away, in the bin, these stores make so much profit each year, what is a couple of quid to them, and before people say, about these products, l mean out of date stock, that they cannot sell, and yes stores do sell OOD stock, on discount shelfs.:)

Re: My anger at supermarket chains
 

Yayy, I love a good Arthur Gray rant :D

Arthur, supermarkets are a business, they are there to make money. I hear what you say about giving to the needy but the big boys already make charitable donations with things like 'computers for schools' and all that mullarky.

Re: My anger at supermarket chains
 

No they dont Arthur its illegal! They sell food about to expire, not yet expired.

Re: My anger at supermarket chains
 

If supermarkets gave away free food, people would wait till the end of the day to go and get it all :D

Re: My anger at supermarket chains
 

If they consistently gave food away, they'd be effectively shooting themselves in the foot. Why would unemployed, OAP's etc actually pay for shopping if the chains started giving food away?
I see your point though. There is a Co-Op near me that used to give OOD food to local shelters. Saved on their refuse bills and someone used to come and collect it. Win/win.

Re: My anger at supermarket chains
 

I can't speak for all chains, but when I worked at Tesco for a while during my uni days, any leftover fresh products were offered for pennies to staff to buy, eg pack of 10 jam doughnuts for 10p. I have no idea how much was leftover or what was done with it, but they can't afford to have piles of out of date goods hanging around attracting vermin and rotting. Also, we had many customers who would come specifically near closing time in order to get the marked down goods from the bakery etc.

I'm sure if local charities asked, they would be able to collect some of the food, but as there is no guarantee of any being left over, or what kind of food is going to be left over, what are they supposed to do? They can't plan their food delivery around the off chance that the local supermarket will always have x amount of y product left over. Also, don't you think that people who are being fed by charities deserve good fresh food, not just the stuff not good enough for sale any more.

Re: My anger at supermarket chains
 

Come on guys you know Arthur does not like facts being introduced into his rant threads :LOL:

Re: My anger at supermarket chains
 

My local Sainsbury's gives OOD stuff to the local homeless shelter - they just don't publicise it (I know because my daughter's friend works there, and she has helped sort it out before transportation).

---------- Post added at 18:21 ---------- Previous post was at 18:21 ----------

Or appropriate punctuation...... ;)

Re: My anger at supermarket chains
 

Several of our local stores supply "close to OOD" stock to the Salvation Army and similar. I think it was one of the "big 3" that tried to rationalise their high meat cost due to the ammount they "have" to throw away.

Re: My anger at supermarket chains
 

It is legal to sell produce passed it's Best Before End as long as it's made clear, a Use By Date however is illegal.

Re: My anger at supermarket chains
 

I suspect throwing stuff away has something to do with an aversion to being sued by people who've contracted severe gastro-intestinal ailments. Just a hunch, mind.

Re: My anger at supermarket chains
 

Arthur, the supermarkets and other companies work with Fareshare to do what you said they didn't do.

Fareshare

Re: My anger at supermarket chains
 

While Arthur maybe over stating the problem i and all of us understand what he is ranting about and i have seen supermarkets continuingly throwing out the same stuff day in day out so instaed of wasting it order less of it. Also if you understand what someone is saying is it really necessary to extract the urine because of their wording or lack of punctuation. If it really bugs you that much send a pm explaining it don't be a smart**** and try to belittle someone because they don't have the grasp of the language that you do. Might also help to remember that the biggest BS in the UK is spoken by those with a perfect grasp of the language.

Re: My anger at supermarket chains
 

Correct :tu:

New legislation will be coming in soon severely limiting the amount of food waste being sent to land fill

http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/...andfilldir.pdf

So many companies are looking at alternatives, such as anaerobic digestion & direct power generation, which won't be such a 'waste'.

Re: My anger at supermarket chains
 

i saw a hugh fernly whitingstall program on tv where travelers got there food from supermarket skips, and the supermarket staff had taken the time to carefully wrap the food so as it was not contaminated in the bin .[so just become a skip rat arthure food aplenty and free]:D:D:D

Re: My anger at supermarket chains
 

Also that other lot freegans or something like that also a bunch of bin divers.

Re: My anger at supermarket chains
 

I've bought tonnes of expired food, that was marked as "expired" for a very very reduced price. Think i once bought 1Kg total of Dairy Milk chocolate for about 20p. Took me all of 2 days to finish it, and apart from feeling sick and guilty, i was fine. (Didn't eat chocolate for months afterwards mind!)

Re: My anger at supermarket chains
 

As Zeph said, there is a big difference between 'best before' which is applied to things like biscuits, chocolate, frozen food, polo mints etc

and 'use by' which is applied to things like fresh/chilled ready meals, etc

Basically 'best before' means literally that, a biscuit past its 'best before' date isn't dangerous, it just might not taste as nice, be as crisp, etc

But food past a 'use by' date is potentially hazardous - i.e. may cause food poisoning, which is why it is illegal to sell - even at a reduced price.

Many food companies are doing lots of research into how to extend the 'shelf life' of chilled foods - most cooked & chilled ready meals have a life of about 6 days from manufacture, normally, but techniques such as using extremely high pressures or spraying with 'friendly' bacteria can extend that - and each day extra on the shelf is a further opportunity to sell it, rather than have to chuck it away :)

Re: My anger at supermarket chains
 

Well a couple do ;)

Their List

CMI
Co-op
EnAct
Credit Suisse
Deutsche Bank
Gist
Katsouris
Kraft
Nestle UK Ltd
Petit Forestier
Pret A Manger
Sainsbury's
Sodexho
Tesco
The Grocer
United Biscuits

asda dont, morrissons dont, netto,aldi,iceland dont. Still I'm sure the pathetic amounts passed on to Fareshare help those companies involved sleep easier in their beds. :rolleyes:

Re: My anger at supermarket chains
 

a lot of it used to go to feed animals but since BSE they havnt done so

i dont think the giving away thing would work either as some one pointed out people would wait just as they now do for the discount stickered food

they could cut back on stock but then if they ran out at any time there would be more shouts about that than any praise for ensuring no waste

though if we make sure we use up all what we buy the stock levels would get reduced as the shops noticed the lack of buying of that stuff

i see it more of a problem for us all than just the shops and belive me i am rarely on their side ;)

Re: My anger at supermarket chains
 

On a related point, a third of the food we buy in the UK is thrown away.

WRAP
In total food waste in the UK is around 18 - 20 million tonnes, with household food waste making the single largest contribution (6.7 million tonnes).
Retailers are believed to generate about 1.6 million tonnes of food waste, food manufacturers about 3.5 million tonnes, with food service and restaurants producing about another 3 million tonnes. The remainder comes from the agricultural and horticultural sector, and commercial food waste (e.g. from hospitals, schools, etc).

Re: My anger at supermarket chains
 

I applaud all the comments that have been made about my 'rave ' comments, and l also say thank you too Foreverwar, for his comments, but my annoyance goes to the sheer waste of food, that supermarkets throw away, that could go to good causes, l have actually, been in the West End in the middle of the night working, and l have seen the Sally Army, dishing out food, to the homeless, and the following day an oap getting nicked for stealing a loaf of bread, and the following minutes, the store throwing food, that could be eaten, by the homeless, too me it doesn't make sense, there are charities out there, that could use this produce, and that is my gripe.

Re: My anger at supermarket chains
 

store like M&S, Iceland, sell there frozen & fresh food that is close or out of date to a middle man who then repacks & re-dates it then sells it on again to stores like Jack Faultons and Heron who then sell it cheap.

Re: My anger at supermarket chains
 

You cannot do that with 'fresh' food - i.e. it is illegal to change a 'use by' date - but frozen food is, as you say, often resold with a new 'best before', and I have seen operations where canned food has had new labels applied, also ...

M&S tend to sell their surplus chilled products to third parties after the 'display until' date, which usually gives a couple of days before the 'use by' - allowing for distribution, that usually means people buying the products right at the end of shelf life. There are no legal requirements for 'display until' labelling, but so long as the products are sold within the original 'use by' it is legal ..

Re: My anger at supermarket chains
 

My local Morrisons is bad for having mouldy food or opened/damaged packaging on their shelves. They need to pull their finger out and have someone constantly checking the shelves.

Many years ago, I did security for a Mr Kipling factory in the North West, They used to throw huge amounts of their produce away. Mainly because of damaged packaging, such as a slightly squashed box. It was padlocked in large cages so no one could get at it. (Maybe it was destined for Morrisons!) :)

Re: My anger at supermarket chains
 

Supermarkets are commercial enterprises. It would not make economic sense to give food away. People could always go dumpster diving round the back at closing time i suppose?

Of course before the era of "use buy" dates people shopped,cooked and got by very well. If i have stuff in my fridge thats passed its use by date i certainly dont bin it. 99% of the time its perfectly edible up to a week past that date.

People stockpile too much in their cupboards and fridges so its no wonder there is so much waste.

On another note,you mention "the needy". Who are they? Everyone who operates and lives under the umbrella in our society has a safety net and therefore there are no real needy. They may become a bit needy though if they do not balance their accounts very well.

Real need is to be found in countires where people are starving and/or diseased and there is no help to be had.

Re: My anger at supermarket chains
 

They do they are called freegans - Its theft though so its still illegal.

Re: My anger at supermarket chains
 

A good Freegan site here. I might just have to try this soon. It's a pity petrol doesn't have a sell-by date!

Re: My anger at supermarket chains
 

I'm no expert but I believe common sense is the problem here - there's not enough of it around! People throw away all sorts of perfectly edible food because they wrongly believe it's unfit due to either a sell by/use by date or because the food has been cooked and not all finished at one sitting. Sell by/use by dates are guides only and whilst some caution needs to be exercised when it comes to stuff like chicken, chilled meals etc. there's little risk if just 'out of date' food is properly stored, inspected and cooked.

Tins and dried foodstuffs last for years and whilst their flavour and nutritional content will be affected by age, eating a can of beans, soup etc. which is past its use by date is unlikely to pose a major risk to health.

It seems to me that the authorities have prescribed so many rules for so many things that people are becoming unable to think for themselves.

---------- Post added at 09:49 ---------- Previous post was at 09:48 ----------

I think Gordon Brown has one though and he's well past it :D

Re: My anger at supermarket chains
 

"I think Gordon Brown has one though and he's well past it "

He was going off well before any date.

Re: My anger at supermarket chains
 

I'd be very surprised if chilled food was still edible and safe after an additional week - as homealone said, the reason that chilled foods have use by dates on them is because of the microbiological risk. The temperatures that the average home fridge operate at aren't enough to completely stop microbiological growth so every time you eat a product like that, you're actually putting your health at risk...

Re: My anger at supermarket chains
 

I seem to recall Claire telling be that the Asda store she worked at threw away £7,000,000 worth of stuff every year.

Re: My anger at supermarket chains
 

I think that there may be a couple of additional zeros in that figure, but I'm inclined to agree that it's a hell of a lot. Still, I'd rather throw it away than suffer food poisoning :shrug:

Re: My anger at supermarket chains
 

As I understand it the guidelines with respect to chilled foods are there to minimise a very small risk. They don't mean that every chilled meal is necessarily inedible or unsafe after a week. Of course there'd be more risk from chilled precooked foods which are not going to be cooked. As for risk, it's all proportionate and I dare say far more people get seriously ill or die as a result of not washing their hands properly than do from eating chilled food which is out of date.

Re: My anger at supermarket chains
 

'Back in the day' (before use-by dates) when people used to sniff things before deciding to eat them, it was a completely different era, incomparable with ours. With the absence of fridges or freezers, the housewife toddled down to the grocers more-or-less every day to buy food that was freshly delivered.

Nowadays food is already stretched as much as possible to increase profitability (due to competition) but also funnily-enough to decrease wastage (due to lifestyle changes - food with the longest dates get bought)

Re: My anger at supermarket chains
 

I use to work at Marks and Spencer a while back and they used to sell the stock going out of date that was best before in a staff shop and anything that was going out of date and was a use by product at the end of the night to staff for about 60% off. We used to take all the stuff that wasnt sold back up to the warehouse and it went to a good cause...us! We just used to eat most of it and threw the rest away :)

I don't think supermarkets want to take the risk of being sued because they have given food away that could be dangerous. This country is getting more and more like America with the sueing culture and it wouldn't suprise me if someone tried sueing a supermarket because they got ill from some free food they were given, it's probably a risk not worth taking.

Re: My anger at supermarket chains
 

My personal experience would lead me to disagree.

Wen i speak of food kept in the fridge, ammainly talkng about rea foods. I do not allow ready meals and the like into my fridge or my home as generally,they are rubbish. I tend to do real cooking, i.e the production of meals from base ingredients.

Also there is a clear difference between use by and best before.
Itend to find that diary produce such as fresh milk andcream,will have gone off no long after its stated date.

For info the current temps in my freezer fridge are


Freezer -24
Fridge +3
Ambient room +24

The freezer is perhaps a tad too cold.

Re: My anger at supermarket chains
 

I know of a few supermarkets that have an agreement with local homeless shelters, and we should not forget that food prices would be allot higher if we didn't have supermarkets and the poor would not be able to eat their turkey twisters

Re: My anger at supermarket chains
 

Regarding the comments about chilled ready meals, all the food manufacturers conduct shelf life trials on these type of products. These trials attempt to simulate the 'average' conditions the product would be stored at in a domestic refrigerator.

Given that each day of extra shelf life represents a conceptual bonus to the seller, who would much rather someone bought the product, rather than them having to throw it away, it is necessarily a compromise between safety & profit - that has to err on the side of safety.

Vlad-Dracul raised a good point about storage temperatures - his fridge & freezer are operating nominally, but not everyone is as aware of the need to store chilled food below 5°C - and there can also be a significant difference in temperature between the top shelf & bottom shelf in a domestic fridge, especially large older models. This has to be taken into account when determining the shelf life - the trials conducted by the manufacturers do try to take this into account.

So while it is generally correct many products may still be 'safe' beyond the use by date, it can't be extrapolated to say that is always the case.

Another consideration is the demographic - a type of food poisoning bacteria called Listeria is capable of growth at chill temperatures (albeit more slowly the colder it gets), but elderly people, pregnant women & anyone with a compromised immune system are more susceptible to Listeria poisoning than others, so should take extra care.

Re: My anger at supermarket chains
 

I wouldn't think for one minute that any unsold goods going out of date cost any major supermarket chain a penny.

They will just screw over the hapless supplier for some extra rebate with the threat of "no more business" if they fail to agree. :rolleyes:

Re: My anger at supermarket chains
 

Even though it's gone in the bin? I doubt it

Re: My anger at supermarket chains
 

You'd be surprised what the supermarkets charge their suppliers for - who do you think pays for the BOGOF deals, it certainly isn't the supermarket.

They also demand 'contributions' to advertising campaigns, full expenses (travel & accomodation) for any visits they make, whether arranged, or not, etc, etc.

So the concept that they only pay for the products they sell, rather those they order, isn't so far fetched ...