saw this program advertised on tv but forgotten when it was on.
Its about all the food that gets thrown away from supermarkets etc.
some still fresh to eat. not always passed sell by dates.


reminds me of the time i was in the coffee shop on bottom floor of Atkinsons.
I had just bought a sandwhich around £2 something.
And i went back to the counter to collect my coffee and got talking to the assistant who was told to clear all the sandwhiches cake and crisps from the display cabinets.
She told me that the whole lot was to be thrown away in these bins they had outside.
having just purchased mine i thought - how fresh 2 minutes.
why couldnt they at least try to sell them off half price or something. or sent them to a worthy cause in sheffield.
as they were still fresh.
all this stuff could have been put to better use surely.

Originally posted by tara
saw this program advertised on tv but forgotten when it was on.
Its about all the food that gets thrown away from supermarkets etc.
some still fresh to eat. not always passed sell by dates.


reminds me of the time i was in the coffee shop on bottom floor of Atkinsons.
I had just bought a sandwhich around £2 something.
And i went back to the counter to collect my coffee and got talking to the assistant who was told to clear all the sandwhiches cake and crisps from the display cabinets.
She told me that the whole lot was to be thrown away in these bins they had outside.
having just purchased mine i thought - how fresh 2 minutes.
why couldnt they at least try to sell them off half price or something. or sent them to a worthy cause in sheffield.
as they were still fresh.
all this stuff could have been put to better use surely.
Kind of like a certain US fast food chain spraying the food they chuck out with detergent to stop the homeless from hanging around their bins...on the other hand, with all the s*ite they put in the burgers, perhaps they're doing the homeless a favour in the long term?

Sorry but I'm afraid you did miss it. I think it was on last night or the night before... I didn't watch much because I kind of know all this goes on.

I agree it's disgusting that such a wastage happens, but I think it's partly fuelled by the still growing craze of sueing for any minor thing that makes you ill or have an accident.
In this case the supermarkets probably lose less money by throwing all the food away than by selling it reduced and near it's sell by date. In case someone becomes ill and receives millions because it was a reduced price sandwich that caused it!!

Even though I understand the economics of the situation and am fully aware of the way in which the world works...it still sticks in my mind that one half of the world sues over a dodgy sandwich, whilst the other starves to death.

There was nothing dodgy at all about the food they were throwing away, it was all in date, it was being thrown away because there was too much of it - they had got their predictions wrong or someone had made a mistake ordering or whatever. They knew they would not sell it, so they threw it away. I don't think being sued had anything to do with it - they would have sold the food if they could (there was just too much of it) so if they gave it away they would be at no more risk of being sued than if they had sold it in a shop!

Even if an item is reduced and near it's use by date, the supermarkets put enough contingency (and preservatives) in the dates to make sure that no-one get's ill (I'm sure there are examples, but I mean the vast majority) if they eat something on the edge of it's use by date. If it wasn't safe to eat, it wouldn't be reduced, it just wouldn't be sold. It is not worth the risk to them.

Just out of interest, where did the story about waste food being sprayed with detergent come from? Is it really true or just yet another urban legend?

Originally posted by beckyaa
Just out of interest, where did the story about waste food being sprayed with detergent come from? Is it really true or just yet another urban legend?
It might be an urban legend, I heard the story from a friend at uni.

Years ago, I used to work for a big supermarket chain. Their policy for throwing food away, was for the packaging to be removed from the product, and the product to be broken into pieces. Packaging and product were thrown away in different bags.

Apparently, this was so that people could not scavenge in the bins, and try to return the product for a refund.

K x