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.

also worked in the coffee shop at safeway and at the end of the day the waste was awful. but we could get fired if caught eating a cake that was being put down as waste.

but the amount of food wasted by a shop, that is actually ediable and safe, is shocking. they shouldnt be tipping stuff on the waste, and ideally they should be donating it to a shelter who will use the food there and then.

but they dont.

actually,m i forgot, paradise wildlife park used to come and collect al lthe produce wastage. but not potatoes as not many animals would eat potatoes.

I knew many freegans in Boulder, Colorado and ate loads of stuff out of skips with no incident.

Have been to tons of freevan parties where even perfectly good booze had been recovered from skips.

I've done it and would do it again if I had shops near me.

I remember when I first started working at Safeway, they did reduce all the cakes, bread, fruit, veg and meat that would have been thrown away, to 10p for the staff, it was great, but they stopped doing it after a while.

Food shops aren't allowed to sell food that has gone past its sell by date - thereby creating mountains of unnecessary waste

We do have to buy most things, as skip-raiding is not exactly reliable!

But I did once (pre-dd, so useless at the time) find ten packets of nappies in a skip that had gone past their sell-by-date. They actually had a date on the packet - wtf??

I've raided marks and spencers skips before. i find saturday night/early sunday morning the best time to go - take a brolly to hook out bags that are down low ( am yet to invest in a grabby thing..) and although I've only done it once or twice generally get a good haul. they use blue dye to discourage freegans, (I've learned * now use disposeable gloves..) but thats generally only on the outer packaging.

the bins are covered, it's VERY difficult for rats/strays to get in (unless they have evolved opposable thummbs. and stilts. )

observer.guardian.co.uk/foodmonthly/story/0,,2149141,00.html

helpful article.

Yes you are totally sane, in fact very sensible.

I personally wouldn't do it use by dates are there for a reason (I used to calculate them) and are usually the LAST possible date the food can be eaten. I do sometimes eat out of date food but I spent 8 years doing use by dates as part of my job so I have more knowledge than the average Joe Bloggs in the street.

MerryKerryXmas, how come supermarkets sell dented tins then?? and not always at reduced rates but as standard practice.

sweetkitty, I think the point is that the sell by date is usually a few days before the use by date, and they have to be disposed of by the sell by date, so are still in fact 'in date'.

sell by date is used as a guide to quality so yes you are right in a lot of foods the quality goes before the food becomes potentially harmful.

Use by is the more legal term which means that after this date the food could become unsafe.

More often than not quality goes in a food prior to safety but not always.

I think it depends on the food stuff kitty. I work with a company that make fruit juice. The ambient product can have a BBE date of 3 year in the future but it's perfectly drinkable and safe for a long time after that. I think when it come to fresh food, common sense, taste and smell have to come into play.

i'm completely obsessive compulsive about dirt, so wouldn't do it myself. but i admire you for doing this, and as long as people use their senses of sight/smell/taste to evaluate anything before they eat it, it should be fine.

M&S don't tend to hide the fact that they turn a blind eye to it and I have seen them at the end of the day clearing out the stuff for the bins and telling customers to take what they want as they are doing it.
ALthough they did bow down to the pressure of reducing some things at the end of the day but not all stores do it and the reductions might as well be free.

So try stalking around your local M&S at 20 past 5 every evening see if you can get owt.

I used to get slightly bashed plants and flower arrangements(!) from a skip outside a council greenhouse. I can't pass a skip without a nosey.

Lol, this thread has given me a laugh! just souned funny when reading it

I didnt know people did it! But why not I suppose

No way could I do it!

I can just imagine My DD at school and the teacher asking what they had for tea and my DD said "we have chicken and potatoes, we got them from the skip"

But, good on you stripeymama, as you say, it is a terrible waste

friend of a friend does it
there is such a waste out there
alot of the stuff is over packaged and fine
you have to discern but it pisses them off
he talks of locked skips some places..

"My father always told me if you find a dented tin throw it out. "

My Mum always says this too.

But it's outdated - from when tin cans really were tin and could get rusty on the inside or something.

And botulism was a very specific thing with specific risks, not a general risk from a dented can of evaporated milk.

Now, it's perfectly ok.

Which is good because every can of evaporated milk is dented!

To OP:

Very sane.

Obviously no-one is going to eat anything covered in bleach, blood ot rats teeth marks, and will operate due common sense and caution.

I would probably strip the packaging before putting it in the fridge, and rinse cans etc - but wouldn't worry too much if using common sense.

My local tesco is 24 hour and last time I was in at 11pm I asked when they were going to reduce the pastry stuff - was told we can't any longer they have to be thrown away to save money, the girls smiled and shrugged.

My dd knows lots of teenagers that go around to the back of the store and climb over the railings to get at the thrown away food stuffs - the teenagers are mostly after the sweet stuff.

My local sainsbury though seem to reduce every thing to extremly low prices to get rid of it - blueberries down from £3 to 20p.

This is why though stats state we throw away one third of our food produce - it takes into account the amonts the supermarkets throw away. But householders also throw away a remerkable amont of food that has just gone from shelf -fridge- bin.

Strange world we live in, but very soon the price of food will increase to levels where consumers can not afford to throw food away and supermarkets will also change there habits.

LOL at "always throw away a dented can"

If that's the case these days re botulism, don't you think that supermarkets would religiously remove all dented cans from display ?

Sorry, that advice is seriously outdated but you shouldn't eat food from a "blown" can as clearly air has got in and the food will oxidise/go off.

Blu - when I did my food hygiene certificate I was informaed that no dented tins were allowed to be used as they could cause food poisioning. This was within the last 5 years and as far as I am aware there has been no change since then.

Consequently that is one item I will not buy is a dented tin.