“Enjoy Your Next Cheap Pepperoni Pizza”: 30 Disturbing Facts About The Food Industry That May Leave A Poor Taste In Your Mouth

They could be donating it to shelters, selling it at discount a few days before it expires. There is so much they could do instead of just throwing it away

This is indeed unacceptable - however the spoiled customers expect full shelves all day long. Too many people think everything is endlessly available. I am very happy with our local butcher, pre-order or be early, at 3 pm his shelves are almost empty and any left-overs are packed and frozen and sold as such.

I know in Australia a lot of waste is not donated or given to staff because of litigation - just one lot of food poisoning and they are paying millions.

Chewie Baron

Chewie Baron

Community Member • points

posts

comments

upvotes

FollowUnfollow

Premium

Premium user. Get details.

I know that the entire chain of Pret  Manger takes all of their food, with the exception of fruit, drinks and chocolate bars, to the homeless every day. I’ve been on the receiving end of that food and it is a lifesaver. Every homeless service I’ve used always had Pret sandwiches for us to choose from.

Most grocery store department/store managers reduce orders to avoid this. Waste must be documented in most stores so adjustments in orders can be made. Each dept. has a weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly budget. Bonuses are based on how well they do. Constantly losing money by over ordering means less/no money & possibly losing their jobs. At least at the big chain stores, like Kroger, Safeway, etc. Also, raw/uncooked foods are NEVER given away or donated because of health concerns. If anyone got sick, the store would be at fault. I know my local stores DO mark down meat (we call it the last gasp section!) 1 to 2 days before the expiration date. Usually by 25-30%, sometimes 50%. I stock my freezer this way.

This has been my experience too, and we're not talking high end fine dining establishments.

Thank you!

100% Agreed! My sister is a Head Chef and she's meticulous about fresh produce, a superbly clean working environment, and giving the best dining experience to her patrons. Not surprised that every place she's ever worked at has flourished.

I'm really glad to read this here. I'd rather pay considerably more and go out to eat far less if I know the food is fresh and high quality, the staff know what they're doing and get paid a fair wage

We have an unspoken policy to not waste. Going to be making chicken stock? Cool. the juices from the baked chicken are yours. Special is done for the month? Who wants the no longer necessary ingredients? Have to throw out a pizza due to time expiring? We've got a massive homeless population. Salad looks sketchy? Owner is having salad for dinner. There is still waste, but only what is just unviable. We take pride in these practices.

Such a hero of positive change to give himself filet mignon with millions of American children experience hunger on a daily basis.

Students getting food from college cafeterias waste SO MUCH F*****G FOOD!!!! .... and then join goody-goody student organizations and complain about the environment, capitalism, etc. But it's OK if they waste food, because their vegans and their food isn't so bad for the environment, right? Wrong. Everything you ever heard about food management is 100% upside-down (even the cow-fart problem is really the cow-belch problem.) Pigs basically recycle inedible parts of food into edible food again. The ecological footprint of 100 g of protein from animals has the POTENTIAL to be way, way, way, way smaller than 100 g of vegan food. Bovines can eat grass; you can't. Because land is so cheap, we open-graze cattle. But we COULD raise 100 g of beef calories using less plants than we could raise 100 g of bread calories. (The largest environmental benefit of using Buffalo/bison instead of cattle would be that bison graze without damaging the plants they graze on.)

Not to mention the concept of bottom trawling - dragging a net along the ocean floor and turning everything that is down there over. You are ruining the ecosystem, and it takes a long time for nature to re-establish it afterwards.

Has anyone seen videos of "supertrawlers?" Holy c**p. I was shocked that I didn't know about these.

Humans are the problem.

True

Yet, people keep eating fish - and in large quantities

When I was in cooking class I had a teacher tell me "Oh, extra protein." Not everyone is okay with eating bugs. To this day I cannot stand hearing that dumb phrase. I wash all my produce really well.

I think I need to stop reading this. It's making me sick!

Worked at a place that used a 2 sink method. One with vinegar to clean, a second to rinse, then into the giant salad spinner, tub, and fridge

We had frogs occasionally in the lettuce delivered to a restaurant I grew up in, mostly dead from the cold.

Good thing I don't like salad 🤮

No. 1 appears to be the US rather than the civilised world.

All except 4 have not been in my experience, but this might be a country-related difference. We did get paid time off, and the ice makers and drink fountain were deep cleaned at a set time daily as a major requirement, same with the ice cream machine. With 4, did happen, to men and women, also sexally harassed by customers too.

I was a server/bartender for four years and numbers one and ESPECIALLY 4 are 1000% true. During my bar shifts #4 was a nightly occurrence from BOTH customers and staff... But 2 & 3? That's a different kind of disgusting! We bleached our ice bins at least once a week and our soda machine nozzles got broken down and soaked overnight in a bleach and water mixture EVERY night or somebody was in big trouble

I worked fast food in HS (early 80s). Soda fountain was cleaned EVERY SINGLE NIGHT. Ice machine emptied and scoured once a week, including flushing the lines. Isn't this still required by the health department?

While not a resturante, quiktrip does clean there drink dispensing machines every 12 hours. Publix supermarkets do this ever night as well. For those who want peace of mind about their machines. I will say places that have those machines with touch screens that have tons of soda products do not as those machines nozels and dispensers are all one unit and require full disassembly. It only gets cleaned when it's services cause it gets broken.

Simple, don't wait until it has already expired to donate it. Supermarkets in Melbourne, Australia used to reduce the prices of perishables a few hours before closing a day or so before expiry. People used to make a point of shopping just before closing to take advantage of this. I hope they are still doing it.

A lot of food is still good past the expiration date.

Many years ago in my homeless days, a couple of local businesses used to donate all the sandwiches not sold that day to the soup kitchen. A sandwich and mug of soup was always very welcome.

This. It makes me so very angry. Part afraid of lawsuits, but part afraid that people will make/order extra just to give it away. Grew up homeless, and could never understand why the dumpsters were locked. That does not fly where I currently work.

We are a throw-away society

I remember when corps tried to make "Evaporated cane juice" a thing, and failed miserably. Most people aren't as stupid as they think.