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Hmmmm sometimes I wonder..... why people would waste food.


Unused food: What a waste
Britain throws away �20bn worth of unused food every year - equal to five times our spending on international aid and enough to lift 150 million people out of starvation
By Cahal Milmo
15 April 2005


From entire crops of barely blemished potatoes, to shelves of supermarket sandwiches on their sell-by dates, it is a roll call of waste created by one nation that could lift 150 million people from starvation in one year.

The ability of Britons to throw away food deemed imperfect, out-of-date or surplus to requirements was put into sharp relief yesterday with the revelation that 30 to 40 per cent of all produce is simply binned.

Research based on government statistics has found that, every year, food worth �20bn is discarded on its journey from the farmyard to the fridge.

The study puts a figure for the first time on the profligacy of a supply chain where producers are forced to leave fruit rotting on trees because it does not meet supermarket standards and millions are throwing away food for the sake of a "best before" sticker.

READ MORE:

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=629543

Yes, I'm not surprised about this.

I used to work for a grocery store, I was appalled as to how many foods in good condition were tossed in the trash!!!

I used to work in the dairy department...I can't tell you how many gallons of milk have been dumped simply because the label was crooked, or printed upside down or whatever. PERFECTLY GOOD milk!!! It could have been taken over to the soup kitchen or something...I asked...and they said that their policy forbid to give it to charity.

What a waste indeed!!!

That shows the STUPIDITY of people!!!

And it also shows that the pro-population control people how WRONG they are...that the world is "starving to death" when we have countries throwing perfectly good food away!!!

Geesh. I just get so steamed and angry about this. What a WASTE INDEED!!!

SPDundas
Deaf Byzantine

your humble servant could not be in more thorough agreement. It is a mark of our insane times that somehow it's considered better to throw away good food than to give it to those who are hungry (and there is no shortage of hungry people). It is appalling, wicked and sinful. Meanwhile, we are met with numerous charitable appeals asking us to give money with which to buy food with which to feed the hungry. If this were put in a novel, no one would believe it.

Incognitus

SPDundas,

What you saw was not uncommon. Unfortunately, there is a logical reason why groceries (and restaurants) have such policies - fear of litigation. The risk that someone will become ill (or claim to have done so) from food which they donated and sue them is too real for them to take the chance. Most grocery chains that do participate with food banks, soup kitchens, shelters, etc., limit their donations to non-perishables - with the exceptions of baked goods and produce, where defects and changes in quality are generally visible.

Many years,

Neil

I think Neil makes a very good point here. The litigious nature of our society is the root of many evils.