Food Wastage

catallus

Everyone's probably seen the recent developments in France where they've brought in a law where supermarkets are now obliged to set up contracts with charities to give them food which they would otherwise throw away.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/22/france-to-force-big-supermarkets-to-give-away-unsold-food-to-charity

In Ireland, supermarkets throw out huge amounts of food which could be still eaten by people or used as animal feed. I know the amount pales in comparison to the amount thrown out by consumers but surely regulations could be brought here like they have done in France?

I worked in a supermarket for a short time years ago and I was shocked when I saw the amount of food thrown straight into the bin, it is outrageous if it is still going on.

The capitalist swine elites probably would have a problem with it, but I think it would be a good thing if all this good food was spared from the bin.

pq0n1ct4ve8zf5

Love to see it here. It's criminal the amount of food that gets tossed. I worked for a company once where the area manager fcuked my friend out of it when she found out she'd been giving food to homeless people at the end of the day rather than throwing it out, absolute madness.

Mesrine65

The coffee shop opposite my job always give out the leftover sandwiches etc., to the homeless at close of shop each day.

One eyed Jack

Check out foodcloud.ie (it keeps crashing out for me on mobile), but they're working in conjunction with Tesco to donate all food wastage to charitable organizations and community groups across the country -

http://www.thejournal.ie/tesco-foodcloud-1548232-Jul2014/

I wouldn't expect any great moves in the direction of legislation for this though.

seamus

Superquinn used to bag up all of the fresh bakery goods every evening and the Simon community would come around and collect it. The stuff is no good for sale, but is still perfectly good eating for the next 48 hours.

I wonder if SuperValu still do that.

Lollipops23

I know someone who used to work for M&S and said the amount of perfectly good food thrown away was disgusting. No reason it couldn't be given to a shelter, nobody should go hungry when perfectly good food is being tossed out.

Bongalongherb

There are a few chippers in Dublin city that give out the end of the nights food for folk, it's a great thing to do and you've got to hand it to the owners in doing this. They know the freshly cooked food will be dumped at the end of the night at closing time so decide to give an hour of their own time to hand the good food out to the homeless and any-one that is hungry. I respect these folk immensely.

The waste of good food from a lot of premises is crazy. The folks/owners/managers that have put an extra hour onto their night work to do this should be commended.

Genuine people indeed.

catallus

All this sounds like good news

I'm probably guiltier than most for throwing out food, but I try not to be too bad.

I know that the amount of food thrown out by people at home is nearly four or five times the amount thrown out by shops but I think if shops made the efforts mentioned above more public then people would see how much waste actually happens.

DEFTLEFTHAND

To best utilise this food it would take some organisation as in a charity or whatever collecting left over produce from supermarkets, restaurants etc and then distributing it at their centres.

It would be great if the likes of the Simon Community could try and get such a network up and running in big urban areas. I imagine most businesses would be happy to get on board with such an initiative.

Irish Guitarist

The law will also introduce a programme of education about food waste in schools and businesses. It follows a measure in February to remove the best-before date on fresh foods.

The best before date must be responsible for a shocking amount of perfectly good food being thrown out. You can't get it through to some people that the best before date and the use by date are completely different. If my mother looked at some pasta or something with 'best before' and todays date written on it she would throw it straight in the bin. I gave her a packet of crisps once and she left them in a cupboard and forgot about them. I saw them in the bin about a month later. I found it a disgusting waste so I retrieved them from the bin and ate them.

The Diabolical Monocle

yes. everyone has seen it. everyone on the planet.


and those on the space station too.


everyone.

catallus

I know they have to swallow their toothpaste when they brush their teeth on the spacestation.

That's why I'm not an astronaut.

Funk It

Food waste is going to be big business in the future, would expect to see a lot more of it going towards feedstock for anaerobic digestion plants.

But would first support it going towards people who need it most.

lazybones32

It's a small step in the right direction but it is only the tip of the iceberg.

Ever heard of butter mountains or wine lakes? The EEC/EC/EU were paying farmers to produce foodstuffs that there was no market for and they were essentially dumping them upon delivery.
There are Irish producers whose product is outside the regulations of food-size and shape desired by the EU and since they can't sell it (legally), they donate it to soup-kitchens, etc.

silverfeather

Mesrine65 wrote: »

The coffee shop opposite my job always give out the leftover sandwiches etc., to the homeless at close of shop each day.

I know some places force staff to through it away rather than give it away. They worry it might affect sales. Giving it to food banks would be a great idea.

silverfeather

Mesrine65 wrote: »

The coffee shop opposite my job always give out the leftover sandwiches etc., to the homeless at close of shop each day.

If businesses were to advertise this fact over ones that did not I would try to give them my custom over businesses that didn't.

the groutch

for something like this to happen on a large scale in Ireland, they'd need to make it a legal requirement for all charities to collect food in chilled vans.

there's no point in making shops/restaurants give away food if it can't be safely transported to the end consumer.

elperello

Things have improved a lot in recent years to divert waste food from landfill with companies such as this one offering a solution.

http://www.fsm.ie/

Funk It

elperello wrote: »

Things have improved a lot in recent years to divert waste food from landfill with companies such as this one offering a solution.

http://www.fsm.ie/

Yup, that's similar to what I was referring to RE biogas/AD plants (not so much the pet food industry though)

Work with loads of plants in the UK, the Irish market will begin to develop soon I would imagine. Just need to sort out the REFIT scheme first.