With half the world having a problem getting enough to eat, throwing food in the garbage for virtually any reason is inexcusable if not "criminal". Food doesn't just all of a sudden reach it's expiry date without anyone noticing. With steaks and roasts priced at $6-$10 lb. it's no bloody wonder some of it reaches the expiry date. The cause of this is just plain unadulterated greed. If it was sold at a reasonable price, it would likely all be sold and the profits would be approximately the same. Maybe a couple of days before the expiry date, someone could maybe hustle it over to the jails and hospitals while it is still safe to eat.
Then of course the companies that provide you with the convenience of having these products easily available to you will have some very hefty profit losses that will eventually lead to your local grocery store shutting down.
Nothing is chucked out until it expires.... either by date or by simply smelling/looking at them. Most expiry dates are very accurate I have found and it is usually on the expiry date that most meat products go bad and are not decent for eating.
Dented cans, expired food products, etc. are tossed in the garbage simply because the business does not want the liability of giving someone tainted food products that can cause health issues, which would eventually lead to them being sued.
The best these companies can do to try and clear out the "Close to Expiry" products is reduce their costs between 25% and 50% so people will buy them before they expire...... these reductions are usually a means of trying to break even, rather then have a total loss of profit that leads to an expense.
If they just handed off these products to a prison or homeless shelter before they expire and waste two or three days where they could have gained a profit from selling them..... and they did this every day or once a week..... no business would last, they'd go bankrupt and you wouldn't have the luxury of having a grocery store close by to get your food.
Don't forget these businesses need to spend money to get the products on their shelves for you to buy..... if nobody buys them and they expire, then they lose money.
That is why when I was working at Sobeys in my younger years, they were very particular with making sure we knew what to order when and how much. As I said before.... it was very rare that my department would have anything to toss out that expired and at worst.... would be maybe one or two fish..... out of hundreds/thousands we sold that week.
That's pretty good product conservation in my opinion.
Think of it this way:
You have a friend who comes along and says they don't have any money until Friday, but was wondering if you could go and pick them up a couple of pounds of hamburger for them and they'd pay you back on Friday. You pick up the hamburger, pay out of your own pocket and take it back to your home and put it in the fridge until your friend comes on Friday to pay you and get it.
Friday comes around and your friend says they no longer want it or they don't have the money to pay you.
To keep this in relation to the Grocery Stores, you have three choices
• Try and find someone else who might buy it off you at a reduced price and try and get some of your money back
• To give the hamburger away to someone who could really use it
• Or let it sit in your fridge until it rots and then toss it out.
Two of these options leave you with a loss of your money.
Now picture doing this day in and day out..... continually purchasing products to sell to other people, people not buying them off you, you being stuck with this product and continually losing out on money and profit.
Would you not try and keep the product for as long as possible in order to have the off chance of getting some of your money back by selling it to someone at the last minute, if possible?
Or would you just continually give this stuff all away a couple of days before they expire so you can pat yourself on the back thinking you did something good?
Sure it's noble...... but I sure as hell couldn't keep doing that..... and many of these grocery stores can't either.
Sure..... they're big companies, that make all kinds of money every year and they should be able to do this without any problems, but many of these companies, such as Sobeys, already donate annually to local food banks and they provide fresh/new products to them..... so that's already a loss to them for the sake of generosity (but also a tax deductible thing I imagine as well)
But add on top of that the mere giving away of products for free two-three days before they expire and losing out of potential days where those products could have been bought.......
Businesses are in business to make a profit..... if they make no profit and in fact, end up continually facing profit losses..... exactly what's the point of running the business in the first place?
Why even try?
Another problem is that if they did just give away these products two-three days before they expire..... then you'd end up with vulture customers waiting until their products are near expiry, then rush into the store and try to argue that they should get the product for free...... Afterall, they give the products away for free to others (Prisons, Food Banks, Homeless Shelters) so why not them? :-?
