Tesco admits throwing away a fifth of it's vegetables and almost half its bakery items - 30,000 tonn
59 replies, posted
[QUOTE=Combine 177;42597136]I think it is just simply illegal to give food that is expired away, atleast it is in Finland and every EU country.[/QUOTE]
Nah it's not. Remember that there's best before dates and no longer consume after this date. You can still sell or give away food that in the best before date. The thing is, there's zilch economic incentive and it's in fact more expensive to give the food away than throw it out once it does become completely unsaleable.
It's why foodbanks are doing their best to petition the commission into pushing for changes in legislature. In some countries this actually already works. In a number of others it doesn't.
[QUOTE=dedo678;42596964]That's nothing. I worked in the produce dept. At a walmart for a year. They easily threw 1/2 to 2/3 of their vegetables and fruit away. I actually confronted my boss about there being a better way to deal with the food but he said no. Such a waste. If they marked down half of their shit it wouldn't be getting thrown out.[/QUOTE]
Instead of asking the manager if theres a better way to deal with the thrown food, give him some simple ideas to improve it. You could have asked him that instead of throwing it out that you contact the local food shelf/ kitchen for the homeless for them to come pick it up and use. For the most part, if it goes back to the community then they'll jump on because nothing says name recognition and happy customers than knowing that the food not bought is donated and still used by those less fortunate.
If the manager denies it, move it up the chain of command until you're under a gag for it
pff this has been happening on global scale for years, there's a lot of documentaries about food production and waste.
[url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0478324/][b]We Feed the World[/b][/url] is a great example.
What people sometimes forget is that food waste contributes significantly to green-house gas emissions globally, this shit could be used in so many better, more efficient, more environmentally responsible and altruistic ways. But no, we fucking throw it away and let it rot in a dump because:
1. Management doesn't give a shit, and if it does;
2. Legal issues surrounding "bad" (not perfect) food being redistributed where it's needed.
When I worked at a Loblaws bakery (massive Canadian chain), we probably threw out around that much every day. We were supposed to package fresh buns/bagels/etc for sale the next day, but the day old ones had the same price as the fresh ones, and unlike fresh buns you couldn't buy them piecemeal: it was 6 or nothing. Naturally, they didn't sell very well, and soon got tossed.
My Loblaws used to give the food away to food banks, but after management changed they banned the practice despite our protests. I would throw out around 40lbs of bread/buns/bagels/other bakery items [B]every day[/B].
Supermarkets are among the most wasteful things I have ever seen in my life.
If you guys have never seen DIVE!, I recommend checking it out. Some people eat way better than me (and probably you) living off of "waste" food. In the film they address some possible solutions, such as donating the food to shelters or better store policies.
[t]http://daily.sightline.org/wp-content/blogs.dir/2/files/2012/04/Dive-movie-image.jpg[/t]
It is on netflix, if anyone is interested.
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HlFP-PMW6E[/media]
When I used to work at wal-mart is was fucking sickening at how much produce got thrown away.
I work in a produce section of a grocery store, and the amount we throw out at times does seem ridiculous. Just the other day, after culling all the food which was going bad, there was close to three garbage bins worth of compost. Another day, I had to throw out a bunch of stuff (more than usual) and when I went back and checked the system out back, I found out I had thrown out about $2000 dollars worth of food.
Part of it comes from the consumer. They always want the best quality stuff. Are you going to buy a red pepper that looks nearly perfect, or one that looks average? The one which looks average will probably wind up going bad.
There are ways to reduce this of course, smaller displays and the like, but then it take more work to keep them stocked. You have to cart back and forth boxes more often and only so many of them fit on a cart. Cycling items is another good way, and we do this where we can, but not everything has it done to it. Really what it comes down to is what the consumer wants, and what gets the most profits.
[QUOTE=Cone;42597208]it would be kind of dangerous legally to just give it away, since if it doesn't meet the supermarket's standards to begin with it could be inedible or otherwise very bad for you. not that that's likely to be the reason Tesco are throwing this stuff away of course[/QUOTE]
This is true. We are not allowed to give away anything that we wouldn't normally keep. If they were to eat the product and got sick (say they wanted iffy apples to feed a deer and ate one), the store could face a lawsuit over the matter.
In Switzerland we have a nonprofit called Tischlein deck dich. They go to the different stores, pick up the food, sort it and distribute it to different pick up points where the needy can get it. Is there no such system where you come from? It seems kinda strange that all the food goes to waste when you have people on food stamps that in turn have to go buy at regular stores.
food stamps aren't (yet) a thing here, just so you know
[QUOTE=Rangergxi;42597108]Bad for business for the most part. Reputation matters but not that much.[/QUOTE]How the fuck is it bad for business? Homeless shelters and the food shelf will send volunteers to collect it, and there's usually an agreement of some kind that <whatever> store is no longer responsible for the quality and freshness of the product. There is literally no downside to this, they actually fucking save money by doing that rather than paying to have it hauled off by waste management.[QUOTE=Ogopogo;42599211]This is true. We are not allowed to give away anything that we wouldn't normally keep. If they were to eat the product and got sick (say they wanted iffy apples to feed a deer and ate one), the store could face a lawsuit over the matter.[/QUOTE]Make them sign a release form stating fruit is being sold as-is and is not guaranteed to be fresh or fit for human consumption.
[QUOTE=Rangergxi;42597108]Bad for business for the most part. Reputation matters but not that much.[/QUOTE]
Donating food to the homeless and starving is bad for their reputation
Wot
[QUOTE=Chernobyl426;42596866]Give it to poor people.[/QUOTE]
Problem is you then create a liability. Who's to say someone won't sue them for giving "bad food"
[QUOTE=Autumn;42597143]currently it costs too much money to implement and (unfortunately) isn't just as simple as taking your old stock and distributing it among the homeless. some small private businesses have been able to do this successfully (though i can't find any sources just now) and hopefully in a few years there'll be some sort of system in place, but for now it's too costly for any major supermarket to consider it.[/QUOTE]
We tried this at the branch of Sainsbury's I work for. We were somewhat limited in that we could only give away ambient temperature food and fruit and veg, but it was still a fair amount that we prepped for a couple of charities. The result? Most the food was turned away, including reasons such as "we only want white bread, not brown". In the end it took up so much time segregating the food for them, sorting it, calling them in, waiting for them to pick a few things out, then putting what was left back through the wastage process we gave up.
We donate most of our cut flowers that we would normally throw away to a local hospice though, but they're really easy to work with so there's never any hassle.
[QUOTE=JumpinJackFlash;42599977]Make them sign a release form stating fruit is being sold as-is and is not guaranteed to be fresh or fit for human consumption.[/QUOTE]
Then they have to train employees (who are working on minimum wage), use space which could be used for a fresher product more likely to sell, stock and keep the forms for purchasing the slightly bad produce, how the produce out on display (subtracting from the appearance of freshness of the store), and so on and so forth.
Ideally, yes, they should do it, but the business part of it gives no reason to
[QUOTE=a dumb bear;42596610]half its bakery items, holy shit, that's a colossal waste of resources[/QUOTE]
Tesco Fresh Bakery, Part Bakery, Plant Bread, Morning Goods & Cakes (With a few exceptions, for example Gingerbread Men) are all bagged up and sent to recycling to be made into animal feed that is then sent to Tesco sponsored farms.
Unlike other produce which is simply wasted, compacted and sent to landfill.
[QUOTE=Karmah;42596801]This is why we at safeway rotate most of our stuff by their expiry date, so that older items are exposed to the customers before newer dates. This way people don't all ignore a one day difference until it never gets bought and thrown out. Also discount older items if they aren't getting bought.[/QUOTE]
They all rotate the products. It is a normal policy. Does not change the fact that they throw so much good food out, instead of giving it to some charity, or food bank, or homeless shelter. No, throwing it in the garbage is the cheapest way to deal with it.....
Want to fix this issue? Buy your fresh veggies, fruits etc.. at the local farmer market. Yes it is more expensive, but most likely it will be organic and in general more healthy for you, plus taste way better. Screw the big corporations who only care about one thing... profit.
[QUOTE=SuPeR_MaN]
That's because the staff are usually too lazy/tight to reduce it all properly before throwing it away. Nobody's going to buy anything that's already stale for 20p cheaper than RRP. I've worked at a sister company of tesco and we just ignored the rules of reducing items '25% a day before sell by date' and '50% on it's sell by date' because it hardly ever sells. They should give it away or at least sell it at a price that is practically doing so because the amount of food that goes to waste is insane at these places.
I have like 15 lasagne ready meals in my freezer and about 30 rashers of bacon i bought for 20p each instead of throwing them away. Fuck you tesco.[/quote]
Thats what we do where I work, we reduce 40% the day before and towards the end of the day we knock it down to like 90%. Our typical throwouts for a day are aprox £20 most of which is just to bad to sell. ( Not in tesco's )
[QUOTE=Camundongo;42600464]We tried this at the branch of Sainsbury's I work for. We were somewhat limited in that we could only give away ambient temperature food and fruit and veg, but it was still a fair amount that we prepped for a couple of charities. The result? Most the food was turned away, including reasons such as "we only want white bread, not brown". In the end it took up so much time segregating the food for them, sorting it, calling them in, waiting for them to pick a few things out, then putting what was left back through the wastage process we gave up.
We donate most of our cut flowers that we would normally throw away to a local hospice though, but they're really easy to work with so there's never any hassle.[/QUOTE]
At my other store ( I work in 2 different stores ) we gave all of our stuff to the zoo, they picked it up and did what ever with it, they would end up comming every 3 days so we never had to return anything
[QUOTE=Ogopogo;42600669]Then they have to train employees (who are working on minimum wage), use space which could be used for a fresher product more likely to sell, stock and keep the forms for purchasing the slightly bad produce, how the produce out on display (subtracting from the appearance of freshness of the store), and so on and so forth.
Ideally, yes, they should do it, but the business part of it gives no reason to[/QUOTE]Use a manager, put the shit in the back room, and buy an extra filing cabinet.
Get the word out, I can solve the world's problems one rambling post at a time. :D
[QUOTE=codenamecueball;42596599]...only offer them on the smaller bags to encourage us to buy what we need.[/QUOTE]
Which is OK for Brits. Wouldn't do me any favors, though.
The sad thing, after a while you just kinda get used to throwing away loads of food, even if it does get recycling (Sainsbury's does this to, to reduce it's landfill costs. In fact even non-recyclable stuff gets burnt in our depots for energy to avoid paying for landfill, I believe).
I often run the loss control process for the produce department at my store, and we do fairly well, our wastages levels are some of the lowest in our region, and I can normally get away with reducing stuff by just 25% (though I'll go lower if I feel I need to). But it is telling that wastage is measured as a percentage of sales, not as a fixed amount. In the end of day, no business is going to do something that doesn't improve their profits.
In most cases the legal hassle isn't worth it. In high school I worked at a Chick-Fil-A near my house and the owner of the franchise consistently gave away massive amounts of food to the homeless, but he had to go out of his way to do it. For example, we weren't allowed to use containers with marketing on them (everything we normally use). So we had to spend extra time wrapping the hundreds of sandwiches in unmarked paper.
[QUOTE=DaysBefore;42600236]Donating food to the homeless and starving is bad for their reputation
Wot[/QUOTE]
Giving away food is bad for business. It helps the reputation but people care more about prices.
[QUOTE=matt.ant;42596736]Asda sometimes do that, they price yoghurt pots up at 5p each if its their sell by date[/QUOTE]
Asda reduces everything, its company policy that stuff with todays date has to be reduced and by 9pm must be 10p or 5p depending on how much there is
[editline]22nd October 2013[/editline]
[QUOTE=tirpider;42597435]So, if they mark it all down to dirt cheap, won't folks just wait for the price to drop?
How would they make enough to operate that way?
I love fresh donuts, but I am not above getting the "day-old" bakery items to save a buck.
(Coincidentally, don't think dragging a bag of old donuts out of the dumpster is a good idea. They will make you sick. Especially if you haven't been eating right to begin with)[/QUOTE]
Those donuts are months old, they sit in a freezer for months then defrosted and put into a packet.
[QUOTE=JumpinJackFlash;42599977]Make them sign a release form stating fruit is being sold as-is and is not guaranteed to be fresh or fit for human consumption.[/QUOTE]
I'm reasonably sure there are legal reasons that make this more difficult than that unfortunately.
[QUOTE=Chernobyl426;42596866]Give it to poor people.[/QUOTE]
They don't do this because someone could become seriously ill off expired foods and other produce thrown away, resulting in a law suit.
you'd think with how much food is being wasted they would lower the price of food
My local co-op does good with getting rid of its close to expiring items, its amazing picking up loafs of bread for 2-15p as it expires the day before or on that day, most of this stuff is amazing to freeze.
Plus its great picking up lunch for only 80p, 3 whole parisian baguettes, small pack of ham, small pack of salami and 2 multipacks of crisps or something else along those lines depending what they have left over. I've even found a full ready made chicken tikka for 2 in there for £1.20.
By the end of the day when I finish work there is like nothing left in their reduced section.
[QUOTE=ViralHatred;42600674]Tesco Fresh Bakery, Part Bakery, Plant Bread, Morning Goods & Cakes (With a few exceptions, for example Gingerbread Men) are all bagged up and sent to recycling to be made into animal feed that is then sent to Tesco sponsored farms.
Unlike other produce which is simply wasted, compacted and sent to landfill.[/QUOTE]
Sorry to bump, just wanted to agree with and add to this.
I work nights at my local Tesco on the back delivery door and warehouse and I'm responsible for 'wasting' stuff in the morning after the night crew has filled the shelves (scanning it with a PDA to remove it from our inventory, then chucking it in the bin).
The vast, vast majority of stuff I chuck away is either damaged (opened/smashed glass/soiled in some way) or frozen and chilled products left out of fridges by customers, which have generally been left out for several hours and are compromised in terms of being safe to eat.
Bakery products get loaded into cages and sent back to the Avonmouth depot where they're distributed to farmers for pig feed.
I don't know how it is in other stores, but generally we only chuck out 10 - 15 items every night, which considering we get several thousand people come through the store most days isn't bad.
We also reduce as many items as we can (say if a 6-pack of beer gets dropped and one can splits, we remove it and clingfilm the rest up to be sold at a discount).
So yeah, we generate a lot of waste but nothing like the amount the news article in the OP suggests.
It's because they MUST FILL THE STORE with products even if the products aren't selling because empty shelves look bad. Seriously, I know people who work at Tescos who say that they know damn well the majority of the stuff they're putting on the shelves will be stuff they have to take off and waste in a few days/weeks time but the company won't let them order less. Then, in order to make up for the waste they cut back staff so there are less people working extra hard to put food out which is just going to be wasted.
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