Anybody watch "Eatn It" special on msnbc from 10-12PM?

[napi21]

It's really sad but very true that the US throws away almost as much food as we eat. My husband was a meat cutter in supermarkets for many years, and it's astonishing how much meat gets tossed every day! Every item in the meat case has a # of days it can be for sale. The stores he worked in would NOT sell it half price, or even to the employees as a discount! It's not bad or poison after that date, but it doesn't LOOK as pretty as it did. T Bones, Porter house. roasts, chicken, hams, different fish, everything is just tossed in a locked dumpster. Same goes for produce, boxed goods like crackers, cereal, pastas, etc. that have reached their expiration date,

Produce is horrible on waste. If it's not PRETTY, throw it out!

This special even showed me some things I didn't know. Big farms that mostly supply supermarkets trim and sort most products in the field. The pickers doing celery have a knife they use to whack off the bottom, whack off the top and remove 4-5 outer stalks then slip it in a bag. The guy showing this displayed one sq. ft. of ground where he probably had 20 pounds of good and usable celery, but the parts the supermarket doesn't want because it's not PRETTY!

I'm sure MSNBC will rerun this, and/or have it available on line. If you get the chance, watch it.

[SheilaT]

1. Sometimes food that is getting close to its expiration date gates donated to homeless shelters

or food banks.

I live in Santa Fe, do volunteer work helping to feed the homeless. There's a food bank that mainly gets donations of food close to the sell by date. I don't know a lot of how it works, although a couple of years ago I'd "shop" there for food. What they had in stock was what you could get, and I learned to be flexible about what I then fixed.

More recently, I don't have the same access to that food bank (somewhat complicated story that simply isn't relevant here) but they are still operating, still getting food to those who need it. Not only do they distribute food to many agencies in northern New Mexico, at least once a week you can pick up a bag of food, without having to demonstrate actual need. It's a very simple and straightforward giveaway.

added on edit: Panera donates all of their leftover food at the end of each day to various organizations, and the homeless shelter in Santa Fe is one of the recipients.

[napi21]

3. I guessd there are some stores that will do that, but the 3 different supermarkets my husband

worked for did not do that. It was mandatory that all of it went into the sealed dumpster. If an employee got casught taking something that was to be thrown away, they were fired on the spot.

I always had a problem with their rational on that regulation, but nobody was going to listen to me. It wasn't only one state either. He worked in three different states and all had the same rule. Sad IMO. I was once told they were concerned that some employees would simply put some items aside until they were scheduled for tossing, and somehow get the product free through a donation.

[frazzled]

4. Yes, they do; but it's not always such a gift

I once went with my son to volunteer at a shelter that fed lots and lots of people. Since my son had a cold, I told them we probably shouldn't be serving meals. So they sent us to clean up the food storage room.

OMG. Talk about throwing out food. They would get so much of this day-old bakery goods from supermarkets delivered daily and even stuff like raspberries from fancy restaurants, they couldn't use it all up. Let me tell you about the disgusting green mold growing on dozens of loaves of bakery bread we had to throw out. Don't even ask about the crates of rotting raspberries.

While boxes of pasta might be fine, lots of perishable food is just that: perishable. And it can't be eaten.

We got the place in shape, but my view of the largesse of food donations changed for good. It needs to be well considered, not just dumped into food shelters.

[SheilaT]

10. That's also true. The shelter I work at also

winds up throwing out unusable food. One problem is that it can be difficult just to serve random food that's been donated. However, since my shelter hired a kitchen coordinator, formerly a homeless person at the shelter, the wastage has diminished greatly, as she keeps careful track of what is in the walk-in and in the freezer.

[malaise]

2. It's frightening

What utter waste

[xfundy]

5. Now, now.

Can't have those "takers" getting nourishment 'cuz that would make the "job creators" have sadz. And that would be bad for everyone because they'd shut down their sweat shops.


Like hell it would.

[malaise]

8. And that's the truth

so charge us more because you know they have to throw it away in a week

[SoCalDem]

6. Stores only have a certain amount of produce space, so they always want "perfect"

If they did offer various qualities, many people would choose the cheaper which would end up costing the stores money in spoiled "beautiful" produce..


Many people are too young to remember when there were no frozen pizzas, or 3,464+ varieties of other frozen goodies..


and they also do not know how EASY and FAST it is to make your own waffles, pancakes, biscuits...or how much better they taste

We are, unfortunately, drowning in choices...most of them bad

[jwirr]

7. It was a very good documentary. There is a web site wastedfood.com I have not been there yet.

[GreatGazoo]

9. My colleague makes bone broth and stock from the bones and trim

and chicken feet:

100 years ago, farms were totally closed-loop -- nothing wasted. Wilted vegetables went to the hogs or compost. That could still happen: the same trucks that take food to market could return the expired stuff for compost or animal feed.

Expired meat is largely due to selling it unfrozen. If it was frozen, it wouldn't expire.