To take my meal allowance home?

[bigfatsliceofcake]

I have a job where I get one of the products we sell as a meal allowance for my break. It's portable food, so think sandwiches/wraps etc rather than stuff from a canteen.

The food isn't bad but it's quite calorific/unhealthy and I'm desperately trying to lose weight. I'm also vegetarian so the range I can have is quite limited and a bit repetitive and boring after a while.

Wibu and really cheeky to take my meal allowance home and bring in my own lunch? Dp works a job where he travels a lot and needs 'portable' food so it seems a shame that I would have to essentially waste my meal allowance when he could make use of it instead. Wouldn't be every day, just occasionally.

My theory is that if I'm allowed to eat X item, does it matter if I have it at work or at home? Would I get into trouble for this?

Depends on the rules.
If you aren't meant to take it home do you have bag checks when leaving?

Why would you get in trouble? Just don't lob out your own sarnies in the cafe.

I would just check with your boss so that no one sees you putting food in your bag and thinks you are stealing it but I can't see any boss would have a problem with it.

Honestly - you need to find out what your works policy is on this. They might be completely fine with it. They might not.

In my workplace though, we have food provided for break times, but it's only to be consumed there and then - it's not to be taken home, and if someone is caught doing that, they'll quite possibly be up for a disciplinary.

Bag checks?! Is that a thing. How awful. I'd hate to work somewhere where I wasn't trusted.

Check the rules, hopefully it won’t be an issue.

Yes and locker searches. Common in retail environments

It's a thing in many retail jobs.

https://amp.theguardian.com/technology/2024/oct/17/meta-fires-staff-free-meal-vouchers-buy-household-goods Check the rules.

@Photodilemmas yes bag checks are perfectly normal in retail jobs.

I have checked my handbook but it doesn't mention anything that specifies it needs to be eaten on site.

We have break room and since we're a small team we only take breaks one at a time so no one would know unless I announced it 😂

Fortunately no bag or locker checks! The company is very relaxed about most things. We are allowed unlimited hot drinks too it's only cold drinks (bottled) that are restricted to 1 per day.

I would still mention it to your Boss just in case but seems like it would be fine.

Check the exact rules about taking food provided home and get HR to clarify if it is anyway unclear.

If the item provided by work is not something you would eat, I would just not take it.

You would be absolutely fine to do this op

@Photodilemmas agreed. I have worked in places like that before, and in places where the upper management would watch you on the CCTV. Big reason for me leaving tbh.

Oh it absolutely is something I would eat, I'm just really trying to cut back and make healthier choices as I've put on a lot of weight recently and I think it's partially down to the food I'm eating at work.

Is it Greggs? If I brought DH Greggs home every day he'd marry me again

I would just ask my boss. Better safe than sorry

Definitely ask as while you are entitled to the food this is likely to mean to eat at work on your shift. I imagine it's kind of a perk of the job getting a free lunch. It might be that your boss says it's absolutely fine, but I would be hesitant to just start taking the food home.

@Spagettifunctional how can you possibly know that?

I would assume the opposite unless you have been expressly told it is ok to take free food items home rather than consuming them while at work

Eat half and take the other half home. Half the calories.

I’d just ask , just maybe don’t say its for DH .

Would I get into trouble for this?

Of all the questions to ask MUMSNET 🤦‍♀️

Why aren't you asking your manager?

Tax adviser here.

Free food at work is tax-free for you if it’s a canteen, or food given to all staff instead of having an actual canteen if there isn’t one. But the HMRC rules for that is that it must be eaten at work as if you were in a canteen. Taking it home is against those rules and could mean (if found out) that the food becomes a taxable benefit in kind.

I’m not saying you can never take it home as a one-off. But that’s not what it’s supposed to be for routinely. Your HR may not even really understand why they have that policy (their tax department will have told them once) but if they say you can’t take it home it’s not because they’re being mean, it’s because you could jeopardise the tax-free perk for everyone.

How lucky that someone from the OPs HR department has seen this thread 😂

While it might be OK no one here can possibly know, the sensible thing to do is ask.
Eta that the poster above was typing at the same time as me, I now see it's against hmrc rules