Food waste hysteria has gone too far

[Nifty50something]

Of course it's wrong that vast quantities of food is a wasted when some people don't have enough to eat. Restaurants and supermarkets who throw away perfectly good food past it's sell by date instead of donating it should be ashamed. And we should all try to use up the food we buy of we can. But some people are so far up on their high horse about food waste nowadays it's ridiculous

For example I was on a group holiday on half board and went out for lunch with a friend as well as her friend who I didn't know previously but who had come along on the holiday. I ordered a sandwich but could only eat about half of it and left the rest on my plate. The friend of a friend had taken a roll and some bacon from the breakfast buffet so hadn't ordered anything at the restaurant. She asked me if I was going to finish my food and when I said no she said she would have it because "food waste is wrong." She ate it, saving the bacon roll she had taken which she had for lunch the following day. She didn't offer to pay towards my sandwich or say thank you or anything. It was all done in a very judgemental way

When I talked to my friend about it she agreed with me that her friend had been rude but then added she didn't agree with food waste either. I asked her what I was meant to do and she said in future my friend and I could order one sandwich and share it. I was fine with this but sometimes would have liked to order something different from my friend, have something other than a sandwich, etc. But felt constrained to share because restaurants served such big portions.

AIBU and what do you do if you can't eat all the food you're served? If it's convenient for me I'll take the rest away to have later but that doesn't always work.

There's a fine line between waste, greed and meanness over food.

MIL and mother are both 89 so remember rationing but have totally different attitudes to food.

MIL, I'd say is greedy. I recall an occasion when DS and DIL cooked 20 sausages for five of us. MIL's immediate reaction was whoar look at that pile there are 20, so we can have 4 each. She would never in a million years allow that many per person and don't get me on the topic of counting food.

Mother would never have counted and would have taken two tops to start with and had another if she had still been hungry. Any left overs would have been put in a sausage butty at breakfast the next day.

As a family we have very little waste, imo. I meal plan and leftovers are used for lunch, I often make chicken stock from a carcass. Yesterday I cleared the fridge - there was an put of date yoghurt, a soggy tomato, a couple of manky carrots and a packet of yucky celery.

I can't remember the last time anything other than empty plates were left although DH can be a tinker with green veg and whatever I put on his plate will leave half. I think it's a reaction to MIL insisting on clean plates.

Xxx