AIBU by thinking this is so wrong. Food shops destroying food rather than letting homeless have it.

[taylor74]

Just seen my MIL who works for a well know cake shop.
This is her 1st week there. Anyway at the end of the day she was told by her supervisor to throw all food out like cream cakes and sandwiches and to pour washing up liquid over them. Why? She said, supervisor said cause I don't want tramps eating it. She was horrified and so am couldn't they have taken it to a homeless shelter?

yep tis true. you should see the amount supermarkets throw away, it's vile! i remember once when i worked at sainsburys overhearing our manager say that our bakery alone was £80,000 over budget for loss. that means that we had thrown away whatever the original budget was worth of food, PLUS another £80k worth.

JUST from the bakery.,

they can't/won't give it to shelters for fear of being sued if someone fell ill.
it's sadly the world we live in these days.

I used to be a supervisor at a small supermarket.

The rules were to throw any waste in to the bins round the bag, pour chemicals over the top, padlock the bin, padlock the gate.

Bollocks to that.

Anything that wasnt going to make them ill if it went a little bit past its best I used to leave out under plastic crates for them.

Are they concerned for the fact that cream cakes could have gone off and if anyone got ill they'd be liable? (Searching for a possible rational reason there...)

Maybe your MIL could do some ringing round and see if there's a shelterthat wouldtake it - and then sell it to her (heartless) boss as 'boosting our Corporate Social Responsibility points'?

Yes, it is wrong to deliberately destroy food IMO. I have also heard of some clothes shops slashing garments with scissors so that homeless people don't find and wear them. Apparently brand image is more important than the health and comfort of another human being.

We dump left over food at work rather then give it to a shelter as the shelter refused it when offered [even with all the relevant HACCP paper work] it does seem such a waste
I have now arranged for a local farmer to take the left overs unsold items for pig/chicken feed could she do that?

You can't have it both ways though.

If the food is saleable, the shop will sell it. If it is legally unsaleable, ie past it's sell by date, then it is equally illegal to let anybody else have it, homeless or not.

I do agree that it is morally wrong, but you could equally argue it is nasty to allow or expect homeless people to eat food deemed unfit for sale or consumption.

The fault here is sell by dates, and the fact that they are legally enforced.

When i worked in a supermarket many moons ago we had to destroy all food, and clothing, rip it to shreds etc. We were told it was as the supermarket would be liable if anything were to happen to someone who ate it/ wore it, and that they would even be liable for people harming themselves trying to get to the stuff, so their words were, wreck it and make it known so nobody tries and then sues!

Its a massive waste but with how overly legislated this country is i can totally see why they do it.

no-one is starving to death in this country.

Canyou i thought it was illegal to feed pigs and chickens left overs?

Even in the keeping chickens as pets books it now states this is illegal, even though we all still do it....under the cover of darkness of course

Boots are really good at donating to night shelters, i worked in one for 8 years, we used to get lodes at weekends, and if i was on a 1/2 shift i would take a box with me on my way to the bus stop and just hand them out if i saw anyone.
some companys think that if they give stuff away people will just wait outside for a hand out and not pay for stuff.
there have been documenters about "freetarians"(sp). That live of what is thrown away, good luck to em, theres to much land fill anyway.

Agrees with BabyDubs, it's a legislative change that is needed. Perhaps there will be one on the horizon soon - we're so wasteful as a country and we can't afford it anymore. It's morally disgusting to be throwing away food that is still fit for consumption and when you see that people really need it, not just want it to sell on, there's something very wrong. :(

The first supermarket that tackled this problem, head on, in the courts if necessary, to the benefit of the homeless and those in need, and the environment, would get my lifelong loyalty.

I used to work in the bakery dept of a supermarket, and we regularly destroyed food. Imo, the fault there lay with the management sysytem, which rewarded the bakery manager with bonuses for high sales.

He wasn't a very bright man, and thought that the more he produced, the bigger bonus he'd get. So we always had a wasteful over supply. He'd then blame us for not reducing the stock earlier in the day.

Homeless people are homeless, not foodless. Food is cheap in this country. Homes are not.

morris... sadly not everything that is thrown away is unsaleable though

i have, before now, thrown away an entire batch (maybe 100/150) of doughnuts that were slightly overcooked. they were not burned, nowhere near it, just slightly browner than normal.

bread only has a shelf life of ONE day. so after that it is binned. there is nothing wrong with it, it's still perfectly edible.

I remember a friend that worked for footlocker if anything was brought back or was slightly damaged they would slash the trainers up so no one could have them.

yes it is a disgrace to throw away perfectly good food

but thats elf and safety for ya

Legally, it is unsaleable.

Loads of food is perfectly edible past its sell by date. But you aren't allowed to sell it.

If it is legally unfit for the paying public to buy, it has to be legally unfit to give away too.

Tell your MIL to tell her bosses to get in touch with FareShare: www.fareshare.org.uk/about-us.php

sainsbos now operate staff shops for anything still within 'useby' but after best before. also rigorous stock control practice should hae brought own losses immensely - it is not just elf and safety at fault, it is poor stock management.

i started at a store with 17k a week in losses on my dept..we got it down to £400....then £300..

Bakery losses for fresh are particularly hard to control...due to the ultra-short life. the key is good production planning ...though that's not fool proof.

I was sitting in the car waiting for DH the other day and I happened to be outside our local bakery recently as they were closing up. There was someone taking dozens of unsold loaves of bread off the shelves and tearing them to shreds before putting them in a bin bag that had all the sweepings off the floor already in it. How can they possibly say that bread is fit to eat at 5.00 but not at 5.01? Surely soup kitchens and suchlike would be able to make use of bread that had been freshly baked that day? :(

RobF... I think that's a really silly comment. There are plenty of people sleeping in the streets. I don't think they would agree with your assertion at the abundance of food.

Have a , you look hungry.

around here you have to destroy the stuff otherwise hawkers take it and sell it on.

this is why i LOVE pret a manger

free cake near the end of the day ;-)

It makes my blood boil. I think of all the elderly people I see in the supermarket with hardly anything in their trollies who would love a free food parcel from the supermarkets. They went through the war & rationing FGS I'm sure that a slightly stale loaf or overcooked doughnut wouldn't phase them at all!

I also get mildly irritated by supermarkets who in my opinion don't make enough of an effort to shift their approaching sell by date food or stuff in damaged packaging. They hardly take any money off it & piles of food is just left on the whoopsie shelves.

RobF are you serious re. noone starving to death in this country?