Wasted food produce in the UK

[Becky]

Just read this article - quite frightening stuff!

The rejected vegetables that aren’t even wonky

Supermarkets have a lot to answer for

 

[Chuck]

Just read this article - quite frightening stuff!

The rejected vegetables that aren’t even wonky

Supermarkets have a lot to answer for

In the small town of Bandera which is the closet town that has a decent size grocery store near me, if you drive in the back way you will see literally truck loads of perfectly good vegetables all thrown into large plastic totes, dozens of them. They are in a fenced area that is not accessible. Instead of giving it away to needy people, churches and other charity organizations they pay to have it hauled away to a land fill. It makes absolutely no sense at all. And this is in a rural area, sparsely populated. I shudder to think of the amount of good food wasted at a big super store like HEB or WalMart in a big city like San Antonio. The only reason I can think of as to why they do this is just simple greed

 

[Becky]

I suppose I had always foolishly assumed that a big chunk of 'reject' vegetables would be used in catering services - ie, go into making soups, and meals where they are going to be chopped up etc. The end consumer would never know or care what they looked like before they were chopped. It just seems crazy to think that there is so much wastage!

 

[Durgan]

The supermarkets in my area have abundant fresh produce. People don't want that stuff. They want sugar, fat, and salt. Pizza, KFC, hamburgers, potato fries, bacon, BBQ meat. Anyway you get the picture. The stuff that tastes good.

I browse a forum with the heading"What's for Dinner". This is what they ingest.
http://s7.zetaboards.com/Worldwide_Seniors/forum/3034163/ I am almost sure this is typical of all Western countries.

Also produce usually has a short life span and preservation takes effort and time. If people have the economic means they will follow the path of least resistance and purchase prepared food.

Also people are often Pavlov's dogs and associate food with all the comforts of life. In fact this is often their only life. Hence the significant obesity throughout the world. Good or bad, who knows? Also we have given our food processing over to commercial interests, probably to the detriment our our overall health.

I live in the best growing area in Canada. The urban properties often have large properties and nary a vegetable garden in sight. Our growing season is short probably at most four months. Preserving methods to produce palatable food is as difficult today as it was years ago with a few exceptions.

This garden forum does not even have preservation section?

 

[Becky]

This garden forum does not even have preservation section?

If it becomes a popular forum topic, I will happily add one

 

[Beth_B]

That's awful. I've read similar stories of such waste here in the US as well.
It's not just supermarkets though, at the bottom of the article there's a statistic that 50 percent of perfectly good food gets thrown away by consumers.

 

[Becky]

Yep, that's true. I find it ridiculous how many people who strictly adhere to 'use by' dates - as if the food turns to poison on the stroke of midnight

 

[Durgan]

If it becomes a popular forum topic, I will happily add one

This might be a start for headings.

Recipes,

Canning/Preserving,

Breads & Grains,

Beverage Making

 

[Beth_B]

I'm not squeamish about eating "purchase by due date" food, in fact I often take advantage of grocery store sales selling such items!
I admit to being bad about finishing up leftovers though; I love food but am not a really big eater. However I don't throw much away - it ends up in my compost pile, or the dogs eat it, depending...that's one thing I miss about having chickens. They were great at eating leftovers (as well as mash and foraging) and then you'd get really delicious eggs in return.

 

[Corzhens]

I was born and raised in the city so a garden is alien to me. When I married, my husband, who is fond of gardening, introduced me to the plants. In our first harvest of cassava, we cannot eat everything so what we did was to cook all of that and distributed to neighbors, leaving us a portion that we can eat. Now that made me realize how a farm can waste the produce. If everything is harvested and eaten or sold, that's good. But most farms that I have gone to have excess harvest that they leave in the field.

 

[Esther Knapicius]

So sad.

 

[Onatah]

Incredibly sad. We have an issue with this waste in the US as well. I was raised on a hog farm. My dad used to score this produce (as well as other things like soon to expire milk products, food excess from factories that make pie fillings, etc.). But now, people are so afraid of being sued, I can't even get local mom and pop stores to let me take their edible 'garbage' for my pigs. Such a waste!! It should be criminal. Perhaps prices wouldn't be so high if they didn't have so much waste to account for as well. Heck, I'd PAY for the stuff to feed my pigs. Just give a discount and label it 'pet use only' to avoid lawsuits. Seems it should be so easy.

We really need more push for people to eat healthy. I was devastated by the types of vegetables my granddaughter didn't know when she helped with my garden this summer. Another reason my gardening will become more serious. She was excited to try what she'd picked herself.

 

[marlingardener]

When you grow your own, very little of it goes to waste since you know firsthand how much effort goes into producing vegetables and fruits. We see how hard the ranchers and farmers around here work so we have great respect for the meat producers and large-scale crop growers.
I have a standing deal with a local processor of beef--he gets home-made bread and farm eggs, I get bones and meat scraps for stock. We do a trade a year, and he's happy and my stock pots smell heavenly!
What we don't eat, or the chickens don't eat (bless their little omnivore hearts!), goes into the compost pile.
Onatah, when we lived in town the 11 year old twins who lived in back of us were fascinated by our vegetable garden. They wanted to know (sob) where the dill pickles grew. They were so disconnected from nature/food production that they actually thought dill pickles grew, and weren't made. When they pulled their first carrot out of the ground, washed it off and ate it, their smiles were worth every drop of sweat I put into that garden!
Thank heavens your granddaughter has you to show her about gardening!

 

[DeborahJane]

I'm not squeamish about eating "purchase by due date" food, in fact I often take advantage of grocery store sales selling such items!
I admit to being bad about finishing up leftovers though; I love food but am not a really big eater. However I don't throw much away - it ends up in my compost pile, or the dogs eat it, depending...that's one thing I miss about having chickens. They were great at eating leftovers (as well as mash and foraging) and then you'd get really delicious eggs in return.

I agree totally re the use by dates. My mum always said they were just a guide line.
I hate waste! My adult sons often quote me in a bit of a teasing manner. It's amazing what you can do with left overs!!! At present we are unable to give our left overs to our lovely old Border Collie Max, the one we have "inherited" from our son who has moved to Malaysia with his wife. Max is 10 kilos over weight and arthritic so on quite a strict diet, carrots as a snack, 1 cup of special dry food and veg. He has had a series of injections, now medication and have just starting him on "Sasha Blend".
It's really absurd that the supermarkets can't do something with their surplus veg. Legal stuff, red tape, surely there could be a way around it.

 

[Beth_B]

Incredibly sad. We have an issue with this waste in the US as well. I was raised on a hog farm. My dad used to score this produce (as well as other things like soon to expire milk products, food excess from factories that make pie fillings, etc.). But now, people are so afraid of being sued, I can't even get local mom and pop stores to let me take their edible 'garbage' for my pigs. Such a waste!! It should be criminal. Perhaps prices wouldn't be so high if they didn't have so much waste to account for as well. Heck, I'd PAY for the stuff to feed my pigs. Just give a discount and label it 'pet use only' to avoid lawsuits. Seems it should be so easy.

We really need more push for people to eat healthy. I was devastated by the types of vegetables my granddaughter didn't know when she helped with my garden this summer. Another reason my gardening will become more serious. She was excited to try what she'd picked herself.

I'm in Michigan now (welcome, neighbor!) but grew up overseas...dating myself a bit here but I was in a boarding school in Devon England in the early 1970s, and all the kitchen and canteen waste went into big bins, which were picked up regularly by someone with a hog farm. I know that is not legal any more and I understand why but it sure makes sense. But then Big Ag wouldn't be making their billions from animal feed, and farmers are often subsidized to *not* grow (or throw away) crops. It's utterly senseless.

Marginally related and it could be said I live in a "food desert" - for several years, a neighbor of mine got some sort of grant to hire high school kids in summer and plant vegetable gardens on empty lots around here. They passed out flyers and posted signs to every house in the township saying where the lots were and inviting people to come help themselves to fresh, organically grown vegetables - and there was a huge variety. Corn, okra, tomatoes, greens, herbs, beans, broccoli, just about anything you can think of really. And sadly, very few people took advantage of it. The vast majority of the produce went untouched and left to rot. Those kids worked hard, too. That program was abandoned after two or three years. Someone else here got a grant to plant an organic fruit tree orchard with the same thing in mind...it is growing well, but I wonder what sort of interest there will be when the trees start really bearing fruit? I'm not optimistic.