Is there a better solution for supermarket food waste?

[Janus]

Do you think there is a better solution for dealing with supermarket food waste than what currently happens?

 

I called in to a supermarket on my way home late last night. I got a few bits, and I noticed a stand with reduced bread on it. At 10p per loaf it made sense to grab a few for feeding to the birds.

 

Off I went to the self serve tills. My stuff scanned ok, except for this bread with the yellow reduced labels on, which I find to be the case with these type of labels in other supermarkets too. A member of staff was just about to enter the bar code number, and noticed that the bread was out of date by about 1hr 17mins, we had gone in to Tues 12 Jan, and the use by date was 11th Jan. She said I cannot let you buy it.

 

Feeling that the birds would not mind, I explained that it was just for feeding the birds, but no was no-“rules is rules like”.

 

Could super markets do more? What if the member of staff had said, “I can let you buy it, but I must remove the wrapper and put the bread loose in a carrier bag, and you can put the 50p for the loafs in the petty cash tin or charity box”. Would that not be a better long term solution to the problem. In a different supermarket, I`ve observed staff on several occasions putting loads of bread and other baked good in to bin liners destined for the skip.

[999tigger]

Its illegal and they also have to consider the problem of people suing them.

Most shops do a remarkable job in selling all their food or discounting it.

[sgtkate]

It's going to be a difficult one for the supermarkets. They cannot legally sell or give away food that is past it's sell by date and they risk a pretty hefty fine if they do so.

 

However, there must be a way to mark something up as 'unfit for human consumption' and then let the individual/charity/whoever make their own choice with no comeback on the supermarket. Some supermarkets do give large amounts of out of date away, so it's probably worth looking into how they do it? Waitrose is often cited as a company who do this, but I don't know if the food is close to date or actually out of date fully, and that might be the rub here.

[tinfoilhat]

Its illegal and they also have to consider the problem of people suing them.

Most shops do a remarkable job in selling all their food or discounting it.

 

But because of their strict visual standards of fresh veg we throw away, if memory serves, a million parsnips a year.

 

Here's the programme, I read an article http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06nzl76