Stopping supermarket food waste

[woolybanana]

It seems, according to the Independent that the French government has now made it illegal for and supermarket over 400 sq m to throw away or destroy edible food; they now have to sign and agreement with a food charity to pass them the stuff.

A good step forward. I wonder if the Brits could follow?

[Loiseau]

That's very heartening.

I think it may already be happening in the UK; see this piece from the DMail in 2012:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2168018/Food-share-database-end-supermarket-waste-Stores-boost-links-charities-help-hungry.html

[Quillan]

[quote user="woolybanana"]It seems, according to the Independent that the French government has now made it illegal for and supermarket over 400 sq m to throw away or destroy edible food; they now have to sign and agreement with a food charity to pass them the stuff. A good step forward. I wonder if the Brits could follow?[/quote]

Great news Wooly. I take it you will be setting up a charity then? I mean with all these little Woolies running around it would be stupid not to. Will this stop our local Carrefour from taking meat of the shelf that is running out that day and repackaging it for another week?

[Loiseau]

A bit more digging reveals this list from FoodCycle charity about the chains that supply surplus food to them:

http://foodcycle.org.uk/about-us/partners/

And the Pret a Manger chain gives away its unsold sarnies at the end of the day

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-10915739

to name but a few in the UK.

But France has always been good at coming late into the field, and making it sound as if it is the only country in the world to have thought of it...

Angela

[YCCMB]

What is particularly interesting (and I can't give you a link to the article as it was in the Sunday Times, and thus only available to those willing to subsidise Mr Murdoch's empire) is a recent article in which it was explained that

A) UK supermarkets can't give away food to organisations supporting the needy if it's past its sell-by date, as most of these organisations are already receiving sufficient supplies of food which is NOT past its sell-by date so they don't need it, and

B) Much of the short-dated food (i.e. Food that's close to its sell-by-by date) is now sold to the public through a company called Approved Food: www.approvedfood.co.uk , set up by a guy who was turned down by the Dragons on Dragons Den, but who is now Turning over in excess of £4 million.

P.s. Apologies for the random capitalisation above. I have corrected most of it, several times, but my iPad has declared UDI again.

[Racerbear02]

Out local Carrefour at Laon does not have a waste fresh food problem, they used to just leave the veg out till it rotted  [:@]

However the recent opening of a Grand Frais nearby means that is now only left on display until it is so un appetising that no one would want to eat it  [:(]

It is however heartening to hear that shops are finally getting to grips with the problem, I recall watching a spokesperson on a UK TV show saying that the shops binned the food to avoid any legal complications should anyone get ill from stuff they had donated, and sued them !!  Perhaps sanity is beginning to prevail [:)]

[Hereford]

As the only supermarket named in this post is Carrefour I feel I must say that the Carrefour Market in the town where we are volunteers with Restos du Coeur give us a lot of food every week during the season that we operate. Bread, gateaux etc near but never past the sell by date. Also any item that is the slightest bit damaged. We tell them how many families we have and they make sure that we get enough items (excluding the bread) so that every family gets at least one thing.

We are not volunteers with  Banque Alimentaire who take over in the summer but I understand that they also receive items from Carrefour.

Clearly it depends on the shop management but they are not all bad!

[Quillan]

Carrefour Markets are franchises so it up to the owner what he does with waste food. Some may donate and others, well they probably have a deal with the local pig farm or re-date it and put it back on the shelf.

[Val_2]

My son was telling me that they had to destroy left over and out of date foods and drinks as they could not bin it in case someone helped themselves and was taken ill and then sued the supermarket as it could be contaminated by rats etc once put outside in the bins.

[idun]

I wonder what Intermarché does? Because they were the ONLY supermarket where I felt forced to check the dates on their products, with reason, as too many were past their date. I think Inter is franchises too, and our local ones were all equally as bad, we had three in easy shopping distance of our house.

[Quillan]

[quote user="idun"]I wonder what Intermarché does? Because they were the ONLY supermarket where I felt forced to check the dates on their products, with reason, as too many were past their date. I think Inter is franchises too, and our local ones were all equally as bad, we had three in easy shopping distance of our house.
[/quote]

My experience is that you have to check the dates at every supermarket in France.

[YCCMB]

Our local Co-Op in France is very considerate. They put food that's past its sell by date on sale at marginally reduced prices. Never shy away from the chance to make a few bob.