Dumpster Diving Whole Foods

[Buffy Summers]

I stumbled across this blog post, and it actually gives a very interesting perspective to the impact of our "fresh food culture" on the environment and waste.

Whole Foods is the Least Sustainable Food Source

When I was a kid, pineapple came in cans. The canning factories were near the pineapple fields. The cans went by ship to Los Angeles, and…

medium.com

 

[Anyanka Bunny Slayer]

Ralphs has a service deli, and the employees told me they're supposed to dump every single thing at closing time. (We're talking fresh fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, etc) But they weren't allowed to give it away...which made NO sense to me. I'm sure that some of them were taking it home; however, if I asked nicely, (and their bosses weren't around) they'd give me eight chicken breasts, and charge me 1/4 of the regular price.

 

[November]

As I was reading I was thinking, the reason for all this is the food safety laws, and then I got to the bit where he addressed that haha. I am a big supporter of home grown food simply because of the distance it has to travel. We have endless infomercials and advertising here telling us that eating fresh as you can get is the healthiest way to go, eating expensive food is the way forward to health. But food swaps, home grown food and home cooked food sharing are all but outlawed. Where I am, you could not cook bulk meals and donate it to food relief without it coming from a certified kitchen. While it is do-able it adds expense and more effort.

I've just got back into canned food. I love canned pineapple, I can eat a whole can but I cant eat a whole pineapple 😛 Canned spam on the other hand...

The general store here sells more out of date goods than those that are in date and for at least triple the price. I commend them for not wasting things, but they will only give you a discount if you point it out which gets tiresome for all parties. Its more like they are trying to pull the wool over your eyes to make more cash on goods they got compromised. Food relief has strict rules on what can be sold, there is a difference between "use by" and "best before". We can sell best before but anything with "use by" is out - meaning dairy and refrigerated goods. Meat can ONLY come from the butcher, who are more generous than they have to be.

I have worked in cafes and the food safety laws are so strict. Where I am now I observe how lax these laws can be. In chatting to the show committee, I found out they were happy to sell local cooked food and home grown produce, the problem only started when they were dobbed in. They can no longer have a community bake sale without being certified. I can understand the need for some control, but I also think we could do a "at your own risk" type situation. Perhaps a notification that the food was prepared in an uncertified kitchen or grown in untested soil. We're exposed to worse things in many other areas.

In saying all this there are so many who do not understand basic food safety (ie under 4C or over 60C, handwashing and safe food prep surfaces), and I think it should be drummed into school age kids so that as they grow there is less risk associated with food poisoning. Food poisoning does kill people in Oz because of our warmer temps and excessive bugs. There was an out break at the MCG not long back so it can affect any level of certification when just one person mucks up the handling.

 

[Blaze]

People would rather see food end up in the garbage than give it away to people. That tells you all you need to know about coorporate greed.

 

[nightshade]

In saying all this there are so many who do not understand basic food safety (ie under 4C or over 60C

For some reason you keep telling me this, but I still have leftovers that are either left on the stove for a few days or in the slow cooker, or just stored in the microwave! Not dead yet! 😛

Our food bank is pretty good, regularly gets end of day donations from bakeries and other places. There's a community garden too that donates fresh produce to them. We have a big warehouse store place that sells a lot of past best before foods, usually biscuits and chocolate type of products. I also have a lot of products that say once opened use within 2 days or whatever, yeah that never happens, I'm still using it 2 weeks later, and just don't ask how old my make up is!

 

[Buffy Summers]

People would rather see food end up in the garbage than give it away to people. That tells you all you need to know about coorporate greed.

I think it’s more to do with a litigious culture, and if someone got sick they’d sue for millions.

 

[Blaze]

I think it’s more to do with a litigious culture, and if someone got sick they’d sue for millions.

That is true for giving expired foods, but how about giving the food away for free or at low price the day before expiry. Stores here keep things at full price until it expires and then they toss it.

 

[nightshade]

About | Approved Food

This place just does stuff that is right near to or just past it's best before date, and sells everything cheaply

 

[WillowFromBuffy]

My ex and I used to go dumpster diving a lot. It is legal ... kinda ... over here at least.

 

[Hunga Munga]

Yeah I was a dumpster diver in my younger days ...or rather a 'Biffa Sniffer' as we called it 😀 . I never had quite the gourmet scores that the article managed but there was plenty . Food waste after big festivals was another lucrative score .It wouldn't be beyond the realms of fancy to turn up to Glastonbury with nothing but a ticket and go home with a free car and free trailer stuffed with months worth of food. You would be amazed what people will just leave behind when they want to go home.

Somewhere along the way people started objecting to the rubbish picking . It's not unusual to see locked dumpsters and bleachng the perishable food around my way .

 

[thrasherpix]

Btw, I know I've seen a John Oliver ep on Whole Foods. I can't find it now (and expect to be picked up by a friend of mine any minute and will have to go away then), but I found this short bit that was from it, IIRC:

 

[Buffy Summers]

@thrasherpix you can just close that window

 

[November]

I wonder, how much food does the entertainment industry waste?

Shows are discouraged to feature cigarette smoking, yet oversized coffees and burgers are still fine despite their health "risks".

I made a new friend who eats at the soup kitchen in the city twice a week, I wana Join her and check out what donations they accept. I know the bakerys down there donate all of the days old bread. If i can get another good crop of zucchini I'll know where to take it! But I seem to breed more bugs than food this year.

 

[Anyanka Bunny Slayer]

People would rather see food end up in the garbage than give it away to people. That tells you all you need to know about coorporate greed.

I'd asked the Ralphs District Manager why do they throw away perfectly good deli food at 10pm, and he said, "Well, its been sitting there for hours, and we don't want any of our customers to get sick from it." However, when I asked a few employees the same question, they ALL said, "Our manager told us that if we saved it, or gave it to the homeless, word would get around and fewer people would buy it at the deli."

Corporate greed in action.

 

[Skanky Vamp]

word would get around and fewer people would buy it at the deli.

And then fewer people buying it at the deli, would mean having to reduce inventory, having to reduce inventory would drive the prices up. Couple the increased price of spending, for less quantity, with the decreasing customers and that would lead to people losing their jobs, at the best. Sometimes corporate greed is what keeps people employed.