Tonight: From Bin To Banquet

Scarlett25

This is being shown on Friday, 4th September, on ITV1 at 8pm.

It's presented by Jonathan Maitland and investigates Britain's food waste problem. Anthony Worrall Thompson prepares a menu from ingredients taken from refuse bins of London supermarkets. The dishes are then offered to shoppers at Borough Market in a bid to show the negative impact of sell-by dates.

thriftmonster

Thanks Scarlett - I heard a review of this on the radio and it sounded good.

BitterAndTwisted

I always use the sell-by/use-by dates as a vague approximate. Some of those cook-chill dishes (not MSE at all, I know) can safely be eaten over a week past the use-by date.

What happens to the stuff in the supermarket refuse bins? The Tesco Metro near my work always has bread/bakery products chucked out on the pavement. I'm always shocked that none of the homeless whip round there and get them. I know I would

Olliebeak

Love the sound of this programme :T.

Money_saving_Diva_2

Thanks for posting this.

I have to admit if I was fit and able I would be one of those dumpster divers who go to Supermarket bins after hours and rescue perfectly useable food!

I have always thought it was a real shame that they couldn't pass the 'waste' food onto shelters and things but I was told that if by chance someone became ill because of food being past it's 'use by' date then they could be sued for thousands so it's not worth them giving them away, but why couldn't they just bite the bullet and give the food away on the actual date rather than hanging on to it til the last moment in case they can sell it for 20p?

And for us, as far as 'use by' dates are concerned - if it smells and looks fine then we eat it, no matter how far after date it is. Most food makes it perfectly obvious when it is 'off'. We aren't reckless but we don't worry if things are past the date as long as it looks and smells fine. It's common sense.


Diva.x

Burp_2

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

The Tesco Metro near my work always has bread/bakery products chucked out on the pavement.

:eek: I'm shocked at that

I used to work for M&S food hall when I was a student and every night all of the sell by date stuff was collected by the salvation army for that nights soup shift ... they used to take everything and anything ... joints of meat, cream cakes, bread, fruit flowers etc... it was offered to the M&S staff first and then donated to the SA ... I assumed all supermarkets did the same

Burp x

anniemf2508

sounds like an interesting programme.

I know the supermarket i work in, the out of date/wastage food gets taken away and is turned into biogas

fluffybunnies

Can I point out that it is actually illegal to take food from supermarket waste bins!!!! That's why many lock their bins.

lil_me

Well spotted, I will record that to watch later, it's awful how much is wasted, my son had a rant in a Tesco Metro when they threw racks full of pastries/breads away

Money_saving_Diva_2

fluffybunnies wrote: »

Can I point out that it is actually illegal to take food from supermarket waste bins!!!! That's why many lock their bins.

Yes, I am aware of that, it is, after all, theft! But a couple of our local supermarkets turn a blind eye though the bigger ones have locks on their bins now I believe.

You have to be pretty brave to be a 'freegan' I guess!

Diva.x

clutterydrawer

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

I always use the sell-by/use-by dates as a vague approximate. Some of those cook-chill dishes (not MSE at all, I know) can safely be eaten over a week past the use-by date.

What happens to the stuff in the supermarket refuse bins? The Tesco Metro near my work always has bread/bakery products chucked out on the pavement. I'm always shocked that none of the homeless whip round there and get them. I know I would

Plenty of people - including a lot of my friends - go round salvaging it. Someone I know got a cheesecake and bottle of wine from a shop bin the other day I don't give a **** if it's illegal or not, throwing away that much food in the first place is what should be illegal.

Sadly a lot of the bigger retailers, in particular, now lock their bins and/or spill paint or similar over the food to prevent people from taking it