Comments on: How Much Food Are You Throwing Away?

By: badburt

badburt — Mon, 12 May 2008 10:46:03 +0000

Sell/use by dates are a load of rubbish put on food packaging by manufacturers to cover themselves. In general if food looks and smells off it generally is, otherwise it’s fine.

By: Gerry

Gerry — Sat, 10 May 2008 14:08:02 +0000

Most of the food I end up throwing away is because it is going south >before I get it home from the store<. Milk, bread and meat should not go bad within a few days of getting it home. (I have a new fridge with thermometers, so I know its not MY kitchen thats the problem.)

I think some stores are cutting back on their refrigeration a few degrees to save money or employees are just poorly handling items.

By: ted

ted — Sat, 10 May 2008 11:35:36 +0000

Been composting for years. It always amazes me to see how much garbage families will put out on the street.

By: Ali S.

Ali S. — Sat, 10 May 2008 06:20:10 +0000

Besides the food being thrown out imagine the amount of money one spends to buy all that food at first and then not eating what you’ve bought.

By: donna

donna — Sat, 10 May 2008 02:03:37 +0000

Yup, I started a worm bin. Easy and fun, and the works love it!

I also have a larger compost bin by the garden as well.

By: L

Sat, 10 May 2008 02:02:14 +0000

Aside from the meat, she shouldn’t be “throwing out” most of that stuff. Compost, compost, compost!

By: Angstrom

Angstrom — Sat, 10 May 2008 00:04:39 +0000

I don’t throw much away, but I know who does.

I was in our local supermarket late at night, about to buy some bread from the ‘bakery’ stand, but an employee was standing there. Thinking he may be about to price it down I waited while he did his thing.
To my surprise he swept about 30 loaves, 40 bagels, 40 buns, 30 or so cream cakes, cookies, and much more … into a big big plastic sack and threw it away. The big bin was in the car park near my car so I watched that happen, it certainly wasn’t destined for a homeless shelter.

The bread products had reached their sell-by date and so they all went in the bin. Those loaves, if I had picked on up a second sooner, would have cost me around £1. The total cost of what they throw away every day is staggering.
And this was just a small local branch, with about 4 isles, not one of the huge places.
Tescos, every little helps (!)

By: kid_icarus

kid_icarus — Fri, 09 May 2008 22:34:05 +0000

not that food waste is good, but she could vermi compost A LOT of what she was throwing out…