Half of all food produced on earth is never eaten. British supermarkets refuse food that looks ugly. - Polidicks

[url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20968076[/url] [img]http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/65197000/jpg/_65197007_65196777.jpg[/img] [i]Pictured: Rotting food[/i] [quote]Britain's biggest supermarkets have been defending their practices after a report suggested that up to half of the world's food is thrown away. The Institution of Mechanical Engineers said the waste was being caused by poor storage, strict sell-by dates, bulk offers and consumer fussiness. The British Retail Consortium said supermarkets have "adopted a range of approaches" to combat waste. They also lobbied the EU to relax laws stopping the sale of misshaped produce. According to the report - Global Food; Waste Not, Want Not - from the UK-based institution, as much as half of the world's food, amounting to two billion tonnes worth, is wasted. Its study claims that up to 30% of vegetables in the UK were not harvested because of their physical appearance. 'Waste of resources' The report said that between 30% and 50% of the four billion tonnes of food produced around the world each year went to waste. It suggested that half the food bought in Europe and the US was thrown away. Dr Tim Fox, head of energy and environment at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, said: "The amount of food wasted and lost around the world is staggering. This is food that could be used to feed the world's growing population - as well as those in hunger today. "It is also an unnecessary waste of the land, water and energy resources that were used in the production, processing and distribution of this food. "The reasons for this situation range from poor engineering and agricultural practices, inadequate transport and storage infrastructure through to supermarkets demanding cosmetically perfect foodstuffs and encouraging consumers to overbuy through buy-one-get-one-free offers." He told the BBC's Today programme: "If you're in the developing world, then the losses are in the early part of the food supply chain, so between the field and the marketplace. "In the mature, developed economies the waste is really down to poor marketing practices and consumer behaviour." Dr Fox called on "governments, development agencies and organisation like the UN" to work to help change people's mindsets on waste and discourage wasteful practices. But the BRC questioned the report's link between promotions and food waste, highlighting a UK government survey that showed buy-one-get-one-free offers were becoming rarer. "Retailers want to help customers make their money go further," it said. "They've also adopted a range of approaches to help people make the best use of the food they buy, including giving clear storage advice and recipe ideas, and offering a wider range of portion sizes." It added that "using more of the crop to cut food waste and increase sustainable production is an objective for all retailers. This is how we are exceeding government targets for food waste." The supermarket giant Morrisons said it was working with farmers and suppliers to eliminate wastage. A spokesperson said: "We understand how important it is to tackle the issue of food waste and make an effort to do so in every area of our business - from our manufacturing facilities right through to store. "We don't currently offer buy-one-get-one-free offers on our fruit and vegetables, have relaxed our specifications on this produce to accept more 'wonky' crops and offer clear labelling for customers." Toine Timmermans, from Wageningen University and Research Centre in the Netherlands, described the IME publication as a "relevant report that draws attention to an important issue and topic". But he added: "Based on years of research I find the conclusion about the amount of food waste (1.2-2 billion tonnes) unrealistic high." Tristram Stuart, from food waste campaign group Feeding the 5000, said: "Amazingly, there has been no systematic study of food waste at the farm level either in the UK or elsewhere in Europe or the US. "In my experience, it's normal practice for farmers to assume that 20% to 40% of their fruit and vegetable crops won't get to market, even if they are perfectly fit for human consumption." Tom Tanner, from the Sustainable Restaurants Association, said: "It is the power of major retailers - convenience shopping and supermarkets on everyone's doorstep, you can nip out and buy a ready made meal in two minutes rather than make use of what's in your fridge."[/quote] And to think that farmers need all these subsidies too.

The problem is that customers refuse to buy anything that isn't organic, but then refuse to buy anything that isn't perfect. What ever happened to the idea of scrapping the best before date anyway?

That's terrible. And I guess in general, like the fast-food industry, a lot of food must go to waste at the end of each work day, inevitably. And we even have tons of people who are starving. So it's kinda like backwards; we produce a lot of foods and goodies, but we still have problems with people starving.

Is this really a surprise, why would anyone want to put older and worse looking food into their bodies when they know they could have fresher and better looking food?

My mate says how the supermarket he works at throws out like £7,000 worth of food every month because the packaging gets a dent in it or it goes a day over sell-by. They're not allowed to give it to homeless people either in case they get ill and sue them :/

[QUOTE=Tommyq;39169686]Is this really a surprise, why would anyone want to put older and worse looking food into their bodies when they know they could have fresher and better looking food?[/QUOTE] Because chances are there's nothing wrong with it just because it looks a bit off.

I eat stuff past the "Best before" date as long as it smells fine. Never once made me sick.

In Germany we have a couple of supermarkets who mostly sell food that isn't perfectly packed or slighty over date. Super cheap stuff, doesn't taste any different and prevents throwing it away just because it doesn't look 100% perfect. Got some chips which are normally absurd expensive (over ~2€ per bag) for about 60cents because they were slighty over date. In other shops they would've gone to waste. [editline]10th January 2013[/editline] [QUOTE=Red scout?;39169858]I eat stuff past the "Best before" date as long as it smells fine. Never once made me sick.[/QUOTE] That's the best you can do. Read an article about this, as long as the food doesn't look or smells strange it is edible. Depending on what you ahve and how it is packed that stuff can last a couple of years over the date without being bad.

[QUOTE=Red scout?;39169858]I eat stuff past the "Best before" date as long as it smells fine. Never once made me sick.[/QUOTE] Same. If it looks and smells okay I eat it

It's a shame that this stuff happens, but it's also difficult to envision a way to get this food out to people who could use it, without these outlets being swarmed by leeches. The way I see it, part of the problem is they don't sell it because people don't want to buy food that looks weird or is 2 days passed the sell-by date. On the other hand, if they started donating these foods, many people may get the "free food is free food" mindset and thus spend less at the stores. It's like choosing between an economically balanced system that fails the poor, or a socially balanced system that could be hazardous economically. What we should be doing is trying to develop a system that helps everyone out.

[QUOTE=Red scout?;39169858]I eat stuff past the "Best before" date as long as it smells fine. Never once made me sick.[/QUOTE] When we ran very low on food, I ate spicy sausages that I found in the freezer. They were 2 years passed the "best by" date, frozen together so I had to pry them apart with a knife, and the texture was a bit rough. Still found them delicious. Never had any ill effects from them either. [QUOTE=Ishwoo;39169789]My mate says how the supermarket he works at throws out like £7,000 worth of food every month because the packaging gets a dent in it or it goes a day over sell-by. They're not allowed to give it to homeless people either in case they get ill and sue them :/[/QUOTE] Are they allowed to take it for themselves at their own risk? I might be getting a job at a supermarket soon, I'd gladly take the mildly imperfect stuff that nobody wants.

I think it's better to have a massive excess than to just barely meet the quota.

[QUOTE=Mr. Someguy;39170071]When we ran very low on food, I ate spicy sausages that I found in the freezer. They were 2 years passed the "best by" date, frozen together so I had to pry them apart with a knife, and the texture was a bit rough. Still found them delicious. Never had any ill effects from them either.[/QUOTE] Funny thing is that the rough texture is likely just due to freezerburn, they're fine but will have a mildly changed taste and texture due to the prolonged freezing. Main issue is that people turn their noses at things way too often now, the best by date is a best by date, not an "unsafe after" date. Properly stored most things will last for absolutely ages. Hell, even milk can last for a few days after the best by date. The supermarkets are also to blame, though, they should really stick things on massive discount instead of throwing away as much as they do. Hell, if they put the bakery stuff on massive discount at around 5pm, why not other things nearing the best by?

[QUOTE=The golden;39169998]Why not take the soon-to-be expired stuff and the food that doesn't look marketable and then sell it at some sort of bargain location for [I]super[/I] cheap prices. I don't know how the culture is in Britain surrounding such an idea, but it would probably work here.[/QUOTE] We have that, though rarely.

[QUOTE=The golden;39169998]Why not take the soon-to-be expired stuff and the food that doesn't look marketable and then sell it at some sort of bargain location for [I]super[/I] cheap prices. I don't know how the culture is in Britain surrounding such an idea, but it would probably work here.[/QUOTE] I don't think there is the equivalent of a goodwill for food stores. Many people today live entirely off of the numbers printed on the package and they usually assume that food a day over the 'expiration' will make you sick.

Did some volunteer work some years ago at a soup kitchen's "factory" where they recycled these imperfect food into meals for the poor. Quite the interesting experience.

There are people that eat quite nicely from supermarket dumpsters alone. Stores have a STRICT policy that anything not consumed by the proper date is put in the fucking [I]garbage.[/I] Not donated to the food bank, not given to employees, trashed. It was rather appalling to witness when I worked at one.

[QUOTE=The golden;39169998]Why not take the soon-to-be expired stuff and the food that doesn't look marketable and then sell it at some sort of bargain location for [I]super[/I] cheap prices. I don't know how the culture is in Britain surrounding such an idea, but it would probably work here.[/QUOTE] They usually have a bargain corner at most supermarkets where most things are super cheap to save waste. I bought a few yoghurt pots that where out of date that day for 5p marked down from 60p.

[QUOTE=The golden;39169998]Why not take the soon-to-be expired stuff and the food that doesn't look marketable and then sell it at some sort of bargain location for [I]super[/I] cheap prices. I don't know how the culture is in Britain surrounding such an idea, but it would probably work here.[/QUOTE] There used to be a supermarket by my house that did that. They had an area with "reduced" food, which sometimes included produce that was either nearing expiration or not perfect in some other way. They closed, but now I've seen a similar bin in a local health food store, but only for non-produce products.

The English of all people don't like ugly food? And yet black pudding looks like dog shit.

[QUOTE=Gekkosan;39169673]That's terrible. And I guess in general, like the fast-food industry, a lot of food must go to waste at the end of each work day, inevitably. And we even have tons of people who are starving. So it's kinda like backwards; we produce a lot of foods and goodies, but we still have problems with people starving.[/QUOTE] Indeed; it's disgusting how we waste all of that food, whilst many folks are starving to death in places that desperately need food; if we have this massive surplus of food we should be distributing it. If the supermarkets end up throwing away half the stock they sell, they shouldn't buy as much fucking stuff; they should analyse how much stuff people buy on average per month, and stock that kinda stuff plus 10% extra AT THE UTMOST. Also, speaking about food, personally I get most of my foodstuffs from approvedfood, a site that essentially stocks stuff that didn't sell in the supermarkets or is slightly out of date; "clearance" food and drink, if you will. Sure the stuff you get isn't perfect, but you can still digest it, as long as you're not some lucky bastard whose earnings have 6+ digit numbers, and can only metabolise private yachts and gold and the blood of high-born virgins. Sure, they don't stock too much in the way of fresh food like fruit and veg, but for that stuff we order from Ocado, wherein they deliver groceries (including greengroceries) at affordable prices; Mum's able to get good meat from there when it's cheap, and we've managed to have our fair share of roast dinners from time to time. I recommended it to some friends at university, though I dunno if they use it since I haven't been in contact with them for quite some time, but I'd imagine that approvedfood and Ocado would be ideal for student shopping since it's so damn affordable if you don't have skyward standards; our house has SO much food in it that our already-cluttered garage is near full to bursting, and there are boxes of approvedfood stuff pretty much lining the hallway's skirting board. So yeah; if you're British and you're not picky about eating food that's slightly out of date, you could save a ton with approvedfood, and Ocado's good for fresher groceries too. I'm not trying to directly promote them like a shill; I'm just recommending a service that has proven to be very useful to us, and if you want to help solve the food waste problem you could certainly do worse things; like pouring a carton of milk on your head or shoving your head into a turkey. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJMbxiLGdoE[/media]

The only way food won't be wasted is if food is rationed and given out to the people and not having people buy it themselves. People tend to buy more than they need and it goes to waste.

Don't care how crappy food looks, if it tastes/smells good than it's good enough for me. I'm not in any position to be picky.

It's a way for the stores to be competitive. None of them wants to be labeled as "that store with the dodgy-looking wares", so they will tend to not stock up on items with short use-before dates or non-uniform appearances. The saddest thing is that this can probably be blamed at consumers.

a lot of people judge by visual appeal, not the actual quality of the product itself guess why this: [img]http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTivunJA2AENyrGJRqZ7THic6EHAT1feGmvGb-RD0HjNeJjtIYRWDLj95xM[/img] has a possible chance of making less profit than this [img]http://c745.r45.cf2.rackcdn.com/img/2009/pizza_cookies.jpg[/img]

[QUOTE=Ownederd;39171076]a lot of people judge by visual appeal, not the actual quality of the product itself[/QUOTE] This is why Tomatoes in the US look deliciously red and plump, but when you bite into them they taste like water with dirt in it. The agricultural companies work hard to produce a product the public will buy (all based on pre-conceptions of what food should be) at the expensive of the actual quality and taste. They don't give a shit what you think once its in your home, just what you think when its on the shelf.

[QUOTE=Ownederd;39171076]a lot of people judge by visual appeal, not the actual quality of the product itself guess why this: [img]http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTivunJA2AENyrGJRqZ7THic6EHAT1feGmvGb-RD0HjNeJjtIYRWDLj95xM[/img] has a possible chance of making less profit than this [img]http://c745.r45.cf2.rackcdn.com/img/2009/pizza_cookies.jpg[/img][/QUOTE] is it because the 2nd one comes with cookies??

[QUOTE=The golden;39169998]Why not take the soon-to-be expired stuff and the food that doesn't look marketable and then sell it at some sort of bargain location for [I]super[/I] cheap prices. I don't know how the culture is in Britain surrounding such an idea, but it would probably work here.[/QUOTE] We have this in New Zealand; there's an outlet shop near me that sells a bunch of food that's been dented or is nearly at its expiry date for really cheap prices We have clothes stores in NZ that do the same thing; older or excess stock gets sent to these outlet stores and sold at a fraction of the price

[QUOTE=Ishwoo;39169789]My mate says how the supermarket he works at throws out like £7,000 worth of food every month[/QUOTE] At the supermarket I work at its betweek 7,000 & 10,000 quid a week. It is also a £5,000 fine for each individual out of date product.

[QUOTE=Ownederd;39171076]a lot of people judge by visual appeal, not the actual quality of the product itself guess why this: [img]http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTivunJA2AENyrGJRqZ7THic6EHAT1feGmvGb-RD0HjNeJjtIYRWDLj95xM[/img] has a possible chance of making less profit than this [img]http://c745.r45.cf2.rackcdn.com/img/2009/pizza_cookies.jpg[/img][/QUOTE] I don't think frozen pizza is really a problem, they can freeze and so the use by can be years ahead. Whether or not they sell is between the company and the supermarket This is what their own brand pizza looks [img]http://img.tesco.com/Groceries/pi/236%5C5052909610236%5CIDShot_225x225.jpg[/img] Wrapped in cling film with a sticker on - as basic as it gets but sells for £1.30