Half The Worlds Food Wasted....

[PetitAnglais]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20968076
Here we are half the world starving, half the world obese and we waste half the food! This really is getting silly any ideas how mankind can sort this issue? I think sell by dates contribute hugely to the waste, I know people who think that food suddently goes off at midnight on the day after the sell by date and bin it!

[rockyracoon]

I'm really don't believe that half is wasted, I reckon it's less. I can honestly say I rarely waste anything, infact my fridge was bare this morning, hubby said the fridge at work is full of tupperware boxes containing colleagues lunches which were leftover from the night before, people just don't have the cash to be wasteful. With regards to sell by dates, you are right, some people just don't trust the senses they were given.

[dave50]

Some of it is to do with the idiots who work religiously to the use by date without using any common sense. As if on the stroke of midnight after this date it will suddenly go off. If it smells ok and looks ok then it's perfectly safe to eat, no matter what the date it says.

[pdq1]

We bought some fresh food from Tesco's and couldn't believe the sell by date was the date we bought it. We now check dates on products before putting in the basket.

[flobadob]

I think a large contibutor to that statistic will probably be from the service industry rather than domestic. Still sickening mind.

[grasscarp]

I think you are right about use by dates. A friend recently gave me a load of stuff which was perfectly good because her husband will not allow her to use anything with a date on it which has passed.

[McMouse]

This report if from The Institution of Mechanical Engineers and is probably based on a 'sample' survey when six people at a bus stop in Watford admitted to dropping half their chips.

[AlwaysConfused]

I use my senses to tell me what can or cannot be eaten (as others have said, look, smell, touch). We never had use by dates on the fresh fruit and veg that were grown in the garden when we were kids! I would not suggest scrubbing the use/sell/bbe date altogether. Some guideline date would be needed to stop unscrupulous retailers cutting their loses through selling inedible goods.

[youngmafbog]

I'm very doubtful of this statistic, however at the same time I am pretty sure that a lot of food is wasted. In our house pretywell nothing goes in the bin, ew dont religously use sell by and if dodgy the dog gets it. If it is vegetable/fruit then the compost heap gets it along with the peelings.

As for half the world is starving, this has always been an issue. The problem is logistics.

[T&S]

I think I ate half of the world's food over Christmas...

[Old_Geezer]

I believe this is not based simply on the waste from the end buyer, but to do with spoilage in warehouse/pests, crops not getting purchased, etc. the whole process from planting to being eaten (or not).

I suspect it simply shows it is unreasonable to expect high efficiency in such things, although it would help if food was used locally by consumers not overly fussy about looks.

As for half the world starving, the cause there is people settling, many generations ago, in parts of the world where they couldn't be reliably supported: and now their decendants find themselves in an awful situation.

[PetitAnglais]

Apparently, the supermarkets can reject an entire crop because it's not picture perfect enough for them to sell.

[ChillDoubt]

My first port of call at the supermarket is always the Reduced To Clear section.
If you've got enough freezer space and aren't fussy about dates(which I'm not, as others have said I use my senses, common being one of them!) there's invariably a veritable smorgasbord of bargains to be had.

Some of the stuff that doubtless gets thrown out borders on the criminal IMHO, when we've got people using food handout charities etc.

[pdust]

lol at T&S

i think you're right on the sell by dates, its something that i ignore if i do buy anything with one on (which is rare) ...no idea how to sort it, though i read somewhere that the amount spent in 8 days on world wide arms and military could end world poverty/hunger for a year..... shame the powers that be have so much money and power they would rather prepare to kill people than help feed them

[maggiebee]

Snap CD - I also use the reduced to clear shelves. Got bread for 9p per loaf which I froze, vegetables which I made into a pot of soup and so on. I occasionally do an overnight shift with Samaritans and Asda at 3 am is sheer heaven for me lol

[joko]

many people dont know the difference between the use by and best before date - the latter is exactly what it says - that its at its best if eaten before that date ... but its still edible long after, just that the quality will start to deteriorate.

they also have to 'play it safe' with use by dates, because they know people will use them a few days after that - they cannot risk people getting ill, so they are very early with their dates, just to cover themselves - theres usually a good few days left in things.
certain things wouldnt be risky - like fish, meat, fresh dairy etc but most stuff is fine