Marks and Spencer Food Waste

uktim29

There will always be waste selling chilled goods.

You'd only get people moaning if they try and sell out each day just to have no waste.

To get the optimum amount of sales with sandwiches you'll have around 5/7% waste.

Lady_E

uktim29 wrote: »

There will always be waste selling chilled goods.

You'd only get people moaning if they try and sell out each day just to have no waste.

To get the optimum amount of sales with sandwiches you'll have around 5/7% waste.

But surely Marks could dispose of it in a more responsible way ?

Perhaps offering to charities but with a signed disclaimer stating if there are any side effects dont sue M&S

uktim29

It's not responsible taking chilled food of the chilled chain.

chou_123

However, it is not just chilled waste. Fruit and vegetables, bread and cakes, frozen products (!), ambient goods, and flowers are all thrown away at the end of the day. And chilled foods do NOT need to be taken out of the chain to be reduced to customers.

uktim29

chou_123 wrote: »

And chilled foods do NOT need to be taken out of the chain to be reduced to customers.

If your reply is directed at my post you'll notice my post was responding to the suggestion that the waste could be given to charities etc. This would involve it being taken out of the chilled chain.

red_devil

i know for a fact years ago that our local marks used to donate food to a local womens centre and the families were each given a bag of food to take home at the end of the day/afternoon.

Im not sure if they still do that this was a while ago.

rogue_element

As a Plan A champion for the store I work in, I can tell you that there are still issues with food waste. We are working towards reducing the amount of waste we send to landfill, but there is still a long way to go. Charities often do not want to pick up items or cannot get it together in time before it is thrown away. I do try, when there is a lot, but it's not always possible.

"Food to Go" cannot be reduced that is why it is often thrown away.

The change in policy, to sell waste to customers has been both a blessing and a curse, for reasons which I cannot talk about on a public board.

As for the salt issue, I think you will find that M&S has actually has some of the the *lowest* amounts of salt in their ready meals and actively markets this as so. In comparisons in newspapers etc I have seen recently, M&S doesn't even rank as high in salt. (or fat)

From the website:
http://plana.marksandspencer.com/index.php?action=PublicAboutPlanDetailDisplay&pillar_id=5

"
93. Salt

Making further reductions to the amount of salt in our foods by working to M&S targets, many of which go beyond those set by the FSA."


http://plana.marksandspencer.com/index.php?action=PublicProgressDescDisplay&pillar_desc_id=12

lisaviolet

I think that there's lots of legislation that unfortunately prevents giving companies food to people who need it. I used to work in a bakery where e large black bin bags of bread and delicious looking cakes where thrown out at the end of each day. When we asked why we couldn't give the food to old peoples home just a couple of minutes a way we were told that that's what they always did until some kind of health and safety requirements came in that stopped it. what about freeganism? is it actually illegal to take items from a shop's bin?

catkins

Wasted food really annoys me. I used to work at M&S and although some food was offered cheaply to staff, a lot was just thrown away plus of course whatever the staff do not want.

I also worked in a bookshop that had a coffee shop in it. At the end of the day the manager would let the staff of both the coffee shop and the bookshop take any leftover food. I often took home trays of muffins, croissants etc and used to either give them to friends/neighbours/families or freeze them. The manager said it was the company policy that all waste should be thrown away and if he was found out he would get sacked!!!

If it was possible to get to food shops bins I would have no hesitation in going through them. I have a Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda, Co-Op and M&S very close by - it would save me a fortune!! Why should people not be able to help themselves?

Sarahsaver

I worked within a T*sco (not for them) and you would not be able to access the food waste. meat is collected by a separate disposal company. food is crushed, NOT passed on to the staff canteen. They have to follow the same laws re sell by dates etc for the food served to staff !
i think they ar eocnstrained by the law, they get major fines for even dispalying food past the SBD, their insurance would not cover them for illness caused by food which was given away I suspect?