in thinking that eating food from supermarket skips is actually perfectly sane

[stripeymama]

and the insanity lies with supermarkets that throw away £18 billion worth of food every year??

I have been told that I am crazy for eating (and feeding dd) food that has been found on skips. And that its dangerous and could make us ill.

Well, it hasn't yet. We happily eat fruit, vegetables, cheese, bread, cakes, and biscuits from skips. Whole bags full of organic brocolli. Asparagus, mangos, peppers, baby corn, chocolate cheesecakes, fresh orange and passion fruit smoothies. On one memorable occasion, three binliners full of assorted cans of beer!

I avoid most animal products (we are vegetarian anyway) but when we still had a dog, he often got organic mince cooked for him, or fish and chicken breasts. We once found a tray of 24 cans of pedigree chum, thrown out because one can had leaked onto the others.

So I don't think there is anything wrong with freeganism, in fact I think there is a lot right with it, so to my exSIL who thinks I am negligent and likely to poison dd.

blimey im off to sainsburys skips!!.......................

YANBU.

Bloody nora!!

Where are these skips located then? (dh mentioned something about freegans the other day, wasn't sure what he was on about)

YANBU

peter used to work for the dept at safeway who had to reduce and put stuff through for wastage/spoilage. there was always people hanging out the back at the end of the day waiting to go through the bins. i think as long as its packaged or can be washed you'll be fine.

just be careful with the chilled stuff as sometimes it spend the whole day hung around in a warm room waiting to be chucked.

This reminds me of the 1970's when a book called Free London was produced basically showing how you could live for free in London by eating food chucked out by supermarkets etc

But you don't know what you could be bringing into your home off those cans and what have you. yuck

paulaplumpbottom ,the bins are emptied daily, so as long as yu are there for chucking out time at thje supermarkets, then you should be fine.

its not soemthing ican do personally though.

My childhood secret was that Dad had an arrangement to pick up all the boxes from the supermarket in town (to get the wooden ones to grow plants commericially in). He therefore got the pick of the thrownout stuff, and we loved Saturdays as they cleared the patisserie counter and we'd get a huge bag of cream cakes to pick through. Much as I enjoyed it, wild horses wouldn't have made me admit to this at school.
It took mum 5 years to get through a box of deodorants thrown out because they weren't selling that line anymore.

but that's true of stuff you buy off the shelves too, Paula! Do you wash and disinfect every tin and packet that comes into your house?

peter says take veg, biscuits, tinned stuff.

be careful becuase of cross contimation leaking bottles of bleach etc, broken packaging, the way the food is kept before its cdhucked (non chilled room), and see how often your store empties it bin.

seriously where are these skips located??!
crikey,what fun id have rumaging through skips! it'd be gr8!

No I don't that true. However I think my chances of picking up dangerous bacteria off cans from the garbage is certainly greater.

Fine if other people want to.

I'd have a go, if I could find out where they keep the skips!
(I have heard some supermarkets purposefully destroy the food in the skips by tipping crap over to prevent people from using it )

I am interested in the logistics of this stripeymamma - do you go under cover of darkness? What do the supermarket staff say when they see you? How often do you go? Do you go to one particular supermarket all the time or travel round?

Sorry, just really interested!!

Of course they do. Threy don't want to get sued

who would sue?

dh was told to try and destroy the stuff on mroe than one occasion as well.

they dont do redeuctions as well as dh did lol. we are finally down to his last lot of gillete sensor blades. they were reduced about 9years ago

I think you're mad and a little disgusting

that is my initial response

but there is also something eminently sensible and environmentally friendly in what you're doing .. so I think my initial response needs re-evaluating .. I shall try, that's all I'll say

How would they get sued, there's no customer relationship or contractual relationship if you haven't paid

Look here for more info!

Paulaplumpbottom - the manky dog food cans got kept outside (was living in a tent at the time anyway)

M&S skips are very good usually (they dont reduce food instore meaning more gets thrown out) - also Waitrose and Somerfield. Bigger supermarkets tend to crush the waste food, though some do send it to Fareshare

It is technically illegal though.

Do you hunt in packs, or alone?

I have really wanted to do it for ages but am too chicken to do it on my own.
You aren't in southwest london are you?

I don't think you're mad, or that it's unsafe. Providing you're careful what you choose, and about cooking things, I don't see the problem. The amount of food we waste in the West is so shocking, the more attention that's brought to it, the better.

There was a great article about this in The Observer food supplement in the summer - found it online here

I wouldn't have thought it was to do with being sued - "I got sick from eating from your bin" is hardly a watertight case. I'd imagine it's more to do with not wanting people to get for free what they'd have to go into the shop and pay for. There was a piece on this on Radio 4 fairly recently - I think it was Waitrose and M&S who were pretty cool about making them fairly accessible and turning a blind eye.

So long as its done sensibly, then its perfectly rational. I think will continue to aid this part of the food chain by shopping in supermarkets.

But... hang on a mo. All that stuff bunged in a skip? WTF don't supermarkets have to dispose of waste more responsibly? At least fruit and veg into a composter (yes, they'd have to employ a depackager to remove the plastic. Some of which would go into plastics recycling bin.) Can't they liaise with animal sanctuaries to make use of meat products?

We go after shops are shut usually - have been caught by staff a few times and told not to, that its illegal, that the food will make us ill (blah) and have always just left without making a fuss.

Its not just food either - we have found all sorts in skips outside houses. In fact, our table, chairs, toasted sandwich maker, tv stand, big cupboard for games and art stuff, a pushchair that lasted a year, and three cast iron casserole dishes all came from skips.

a friend was telling me only yesterday about how it never bothered her that her mum had no money when she was a child, she said she used to LOVE going to the supermarket skips, it used to be so exciting to see what she could find!!