free food out of supermarket bins ?????

fijiflowers

hi there
i've jus watched a programme where a group of people who live in camper vans and call themselves freeganists spend no money on food but go bin raiding at supermarkets at night, is this allowed ?? some of the food was only in there as the outer packet had been torn eg multi pack of mini bags malteasers an they got loads, most still in date as well.
what a waste why don't the shops sell it off cheap in store or give it a homeless shelter or something.
with 7 kids myself i was quite tempted to nip down my local supermarket after dark :rotfl::rotfl:

Loucien

I know a woman who used to work for Boots, and she told me they used to give the excess food to the homeless but someone sued them for getting food poisoning from it. They paid out £25,000 - and stopped giving the food out.

I image most places would turn a blind eye to freegans though, since they couldn't be held responsible for the quality of food taken from their bins.

fijiflowers

hi there
i've jus watched a programme where a group of people who live in camper vans and call themselves freeganists spend no money on food but go bin raiding at supermarkets at night, is this allowed ?? some of the food was only in there as the outer packet had been torn eg multi pack of mini bags malteasers an they got loads, most still in date as well.
what a waste why don't the shops sell it off cheap in store or give it a homeless shelter or something.
with 7 kids myself i was quite tempted to nip down my local supermarket after dark :rotfl::rotfl:

youngie

most supermarkets crush food because they might get sued as stated above they cant even donate to animal sancturys or shelters because of red tape I work for a supermarket and they don't even let the staff have it cheap or free they crush it

mark55man

in Oxford a charity group has just started recycling the food from 4-5 supermarkets. must have sorted the legal issues out

in terms of the freeganists - can't really disapprove, but it is a crime

Claire_Bear

Someone on another thread said that they lock the food from some supermarkets in big compounds at night to stop freegans from taking it, but instead of it going to landfill they burn it to create fuel which is then recycled and used. I used to work for Mr S and I was told we used to give leftover food to homeless shelters but we couldn't incase one of the homeless people got sick and sued the company, I thought it was ridiculous, I never thought it had actually happened :eek: At least I feel better that it's going to a good cause now and not just all going to waste.

mrbrightside842

I used to work for Tesco, and I'd be one of the people to sort through the waste. Anything that I deemed as ruined, would go in the compactor and be destroyed. Things that could go back out would be reduced and reassessed later on. Things that were from multipacks where the bag had split etc would go in staff sales, things like bottles of beer, cans of lager, crisps etc. I wouldn't have honestly thought there was much for the taking for Freegans. Plus I wouldn't eat anything that had been in the bin.

jdemaistre

mark88man wrote: »

in Oxford a charity group has just started recycling the food

Which one?

jenniewb

Loucien wrote: »

I know a woman who used to work for Boots, and she told me they used to give the excess food to the homeless but someone sued them for getting food poisoning from it. They paid out £25,000 - and stopped giving the food out.

I image most places would turn a blind eye to freegans though, since they couldn't be held responsible for the quality of food taken from their bins.

They can be held responsible- even if they are from the bins, outside the store bins are not their responsiblility, but their own bins are supposed to be guarded and if not, and people are able to take food from them, its the supermarkets negligence and they are liable to court action, fines or at worse being sued.

Not saying its right, but if they are trying to retain their profits, which is theor sole purpose (that and trying to make a profit!) people sueing left right and center wont help, can see their point. Its a shame a few money hungry people can really spoil it for so many others, I am sure there were far more posative reactions to the freebie food given to homeless then the few food poisoning ones!

Loucien

At a weekend market I go to sometimes, that is a fruit market during the week, there are usually boxes of veg abandoned near the carpark. Maybe the freegans forage for stuff like that.

debjk

I used to work for safeway we used to watch them on the security cameras once we saw the owner of a local curry house in there fishing out chicken breasts.... lets just say no one from safeway ever ate at that curry house again!