to think the unofficial fridge monitor at work

[wowfudge]

..should leave other people's stuff the hell alone?

I had a yoghurt in the fridge which I planned to have this lunchtime. It's not there. I know it was a couple of days out of date - only a couple mind - so would have been perfectly edible.

This is not the first time this kind of thing has happened so I'm pretty annoyed.

For the record, I used to clear the fridge out at my last place of work and some of the stuff in there was practically unidentifiable. Yuck. At least I emailed before I did the clear out and asked people to shift out of date stuff themselves or I would chuck it out.

Ha ha ha - that is going too far honey. Where, as it what mind of business, do you work in?

Oh and any empty plastic containers,lunch boxes left at the end of each month also get dumped, jobsworths or what??!!

wowfudge it's NHS hospital

Blimey - too little to do, obviously. I once worked somewhere very civilised where lunch was on the company every day and you were expected to take a proper lunch break. I never had to take anything in with me. We worked in a small town with some lovely lunch/sandwich places and decent shops so it was never a problem. We used to take it in turns to collect stuff for each other too.

I work part time and so by the time I was back in my butter had been in the big black bin for a day - I didn't feel like retrieving it. However I have since stipulated that if it happens again I would like my perfectly fine butter to be left in peace .

I have a feeling that the same certain person will conveniently forget the next time it happens. She just likes throwing things out.

Well you could always very loudly state that if your food gets thrown out you will be expecting the thrower to replace it at their own cost.

wow that's very civilised!
It's the housekeepers at work who 'own' the fridges. I actually think they enjoy it when they find unlabelled stuff. Common sense goes out the window
Somebody once had a container of butter in the fridge to use on their crackers,toast every day. They put a big label on it that simply said dont touch my fucking butter or there will be consequences

There was an incident in my work once over some minging strawberries. And muttering a about the person who kept leaving half-eaten bananas in the fridge.

God, I hate the work fridge politics!! I've started taking exactly the amount of milk I need for my tea and poridge every day and lunch to be eaten that day too. I never leave anything in there more than that day. It's just not worth the bloody bitching and arguing about who's nicked who's milk again!

Wowfudge - I agree, but then I wouldn't chuck anything left to myself. Whenever a big clean out was scheduled at my last place of work, an email would go round, but there would still be complaints from people who hadn't seen it/were too busy to go and check/thought it should be obvious that their food was fresh, so it didn't really help much!

Could you perhaps go on the other side - send an email round to everyone saying that if they are the fridge clearing culprit, you expect to be reimbursed for any items that are chucked without informing you...?

Someone in my old job took it upon themselves to throw out a tub of clotted cream that had actually grown green furry mould in one corner.
The 'recycling queen' who prides herself on never throwing anything away took it out of the bin and took it home!

The ironic thing was, she once threw away recycled some posh biscuit tins because they had been hanging around for 'ages' but one was a gift with great sentimental value that the owner had brought in to show someone and had left there as they were working different shifts that week.

I've been known to eat yoghurts at least 2 weeks after expiry date so long as they've not blown. Fortunately I work with people who really don't give a damn for expiry dates. It's usually me that cleans the fridge out and I work on the basis if it's less than 1 month after the expiry date, it'll be fine.

I used to leave things that were only a few days out of date

but people take the piss

there was a bag in the drawer at the bottom which had been there for a while so I took it out. Was a cheesecake and orange that had green mold all over it it was disgusting.

There shouldn't have to be fridge monitors people should stop being disgusting.

I'd totally agree Tequila but no one ever, and I mean ever, cleans the fridge at work. I'm pretty laid back about fridges but when there's been liquid on the bottom of the fridge for more than a week and it's ignored, I must clean it up.

Well Tequila it has never, ever been like that where I work, although I did once find a bag of furry brown slop in the fridge at my last job. I could just about tell that it was once some strawberries. Ewwwww! I guess UFM's bloody irritating cleansing actions mean the same thing doesn't happen where I work now.

DoJo unfortunately I strongly suspect FM is my line manager. She has some very peculiar ideas about hygiene.

I took it upon myself to be the fridge cleaner,I was in a warehouse mainly lads and used to shout 'FRIDGE CLEAAAAN'. They'd scramble to save stuff or just leave it.

I chucked all sorts away.

It used to really annoy me when I'd be off for a while and come back to toast crumbs in my butter though

Teachers get time to eat lunch?? & send chastising emails??
Quick call Gove !

the boss from hell I used to work for never covered her food in the fridge - one day when I was bored I counted 27 different items uncovered. The worst was when the food started to go mouldy, oh and the uncovered prawns!!! - I resorted to buying pre-packed sandwiches because that fridge was a health hazard - I imagine she still leaves things uncovered now

OP YANBU - the yoghurt was sealed - I'd go with the sticker idea

Your story made me laugh, Nomama. I am a teacher too and exactly the same could have happened in my staffroom.

I have to admit I am a staffroom fridge sinner. I forget what I have in there. Also the passive-aggressive mails we get about it make me want to leave stuff in there.

yabu!

There's a big difference between a best before date and an eat before date. I'd be annoyed too and want to find out who it was and have a gentle word. In the meantime labelling your items is the way to go.