MSE Blog: Supermarkets in the UK should be made to donate leftover food 29 May 2015 at 3:00PM in Food shopping & groceries 17 replies 3K views

Former_MSE_Helen

"Supermarkets in France have been banned from throwing out food approaching its best-before date, it’s been reported over the last week. But wouldn’t it be great if UK supermarkets were made to do this, too?..."

Read MSE Amelia M's full blog:

Supermarkets in the UK should be made to donate leftover food

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Ken68

The supermarkets will suffer if they give food away, can't see that happening.
Anyway, in my area digesters are the coming thing, Tesco et al probably get paid.
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/186717-uk-supermarket-will-be-the-first-to-disconnect-from-the-grid-use-electricity-generated-entirely-by-its-own-rotten-food

6mmglitterthing

I used to work for a supermarket and this is what they told us why they do not give it away. They used to give our close UB and BB dayed food out to homeless people. However, one of the people got food poisoning from the food and they sued the company because they gave them the food.

Now this could be a tall story that they told staff to stop asking about it, perhaps not.

sleepymans

My opinion would be that the story is bolx

VfM4meplse

It would be ideal if we could guarantee public health: this means checking to ensure the food is safe at the point of disposal, and a safe supply chain out of the store.

I can see this plan failing with the first dose of diarrhoea.

stephen77

as above. Only needs one person to get ill.

Especially as most of the food they through out, will be short shelf life chilled items.
Its making sure all the homeless shelters etc have adequate refrigeration etc.

robin58

Actually stephen77 it is not short life chilled items that is most of the food they throw out.

In all supermarkets I have been in lately the cool chill cabinet is the one area that I have never seen any food left to throw away.

zygurat789

stephen77 wrote: »

as above. Only needs one person to get ill.

Especially as most of the food they through out, will be short shelf life chilled items.
Its making sure all the homeless shelters etc have adequate refrigeration etc.

No problem for one night then

geordie_joe

zygurat789 wrote: »

No problem for one night then

Well not really. Short shelf life chilled items have a use by date and shops sell them right up to that date. They are not allowed to sell them after that date, therefore they should not be allowed to give them away.

If they are not fit to be eaten by those who can afford to pay for them, they are also not fit to be eaten by those who can't afford to pay for them.

VfM4meplse

geordie_joe wrote: »

If they are not fit to be eaten by those who can afford to pay for them, they are also not fit to be eaten by those who can't afford to pay for them.

But they are fit for consumption, as anyone who has ever bought anything YS and then stored it beyond its shelf life before eating will attest to (especially me).

It's a question of not being able to guarantee the safety and risk of legal action that is the issue.

geordie_joe

VfM4meplse wrote: »

But they are fit for consumption, as anyone who has ever bought anything YS and then stored it beyond its shelf life before eating will attest to (especially me).

I agree, I buy ys stuff too. But that wasn't really my point. My point was that the same safety standards should apply to those who can pay and those who can't.

VfM4meplse wrote: »

It's a question of not being able to guarantee the safety and risk of legal action that is the issue.

Exactly, if the law says you cannot sell it to people because you can't guarantee it's safety, then you shouldn't be able to give it away either, for the same reason.

If they are allowed to give it away, or even forced too, then that is just saying poor people are worth less than people with money.