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[UncleUB]

I guess we are all a little guilty as to wasting/throwing food away over the festive period,but nothing on the scale of the supermarkets..

My OH told me that the Morrisons store where she works  threw over 300 loaves of  bread in the skip yesterday after failing to sell via price reductions.
This is 1 item in 1 store in 1 day, times that right across the country........

[scottiesmum]

     I hate waste Unc ...especially food  ....you'd be amazed what gets turned into soup at chez nous      Would the bread have been on it's final sell by date  ?  or could it not be frozen to be sold as frozen ?  OR   could it not be given away   ? ....  surely  local hospitals / shelters and such like  might make good use of it  - bread and butter pudding is best made from stale bread  .... or eggy bread desserts     .....or even a local pig farm   ......   I suppose it could reach saturation point ....   I'm just searching for ideas 

[UncleUB]

Hi Kate 

I think tbh they reduce it down to virtually nothing and still it goes unwanted.There is obviously too much stuff ordered and not enough demand.
Someone told me that Asda were selling fresh turkeys on Boxing day reduced from £32 down to £6.

We like yourself waste nothing,our turkey will be used right up to making soup with the carcass,which when enhanced with lentils,pearl barley,carrots,celery,swede and leeks is a very tasty and filling meal in itself and of course any surplus will freeze 

[roseway]

All that waste is obscene. There must be loads of charitable causes which could make good use of it.

[silversurfer44]

I whole heartedly agree that the waste is obscene.
The only downside I can see about giving to worthy causes is that if there were an outbreak of food poisoning then the media would have a real field day. It could be serious if someone died, however remote the possibility.
In my opinion the supermarkets should make a better attempt at coping with the supply/demand thing.
Yes there will be occasions when the demand outstrips the supply. That I'm afraid is tough luck on the ones that miss out. Of course there will be occasions when the food is left on the shelf unsold. If it's fresh produce then it has to be disposed of as cattle feed or something. Bread is another commodity that does go mouldy, and very quickly after it's shelf life.
At the end of the day it's the customers that drive the industry. I'm one of them seeing as I shop there. Yet I do remember going to the local shops for everything we needed to live on.

[HPsauce]

At the end of the day it's the customers that drive the industry.

Which is a large part of the reason why supermarkets do end up with excess perishable stock at times.
If they didn't have it available we'd all moan like hell and vote with our feet.

In general I think they do usually make a pretty good job of managing it, if you compare the surplus to the actual volume sold.
And we always seem to do well on the final reductions on a Saturday evening that keep the freezer well-stocked. 

[silversurfer44]

If they didn't have it available we'd all moan like hell and vote with our feet.

But if all Supermarkets did the same where would the feet take us. I agree they do a good job and one hell of a job it must be trying to forecast what us lot are going to buy.

[roseway]

Part of the problem is the rigid application of sell-by dates. For many types of food these dates are quite arbitrary and have no health consequences. 'Best before' would serve the purpose much better in many cases.

[scottiesmum]

I use the supermarket here for general repetitive items  ...  but I use the 'fairly local' shops too  ...they are a little more expensive, but if we don't use them we'll lose them  ....  our local 'alimentation' offers  a free home delivery service, which might be useful one day.  The local boulangerie is a must; the butcher too  .....  and not forgetting the local markets - one available every morning  at towns/ villages  within a 20 kms radius.   

There has been an interesting opinion poll  here recently, regarding goods 'made in France'.  It was interesting to see that the majority (over 80%) of people said they prefer to buy French made/grown goods even if they are more expensive.  I've seen this in action in the supermarkets especially with fruit/veg.  In fact I do it myself.  I avoid the Spanish strawberries,  huge water filled, forced tasteless specimens, which appear about a month earlier than the lovely Gauriaguet ones (the species is from the name of village where they are grown)  they need no sugar.   M.Sarkozy   (bless him  ) has been on a national tour, electioneering of course, but at the same time pushing  'buy French'.   It is evident from car parks and roads  everywhere that this has applied for along time as far as the cars are concerned.   I know this is slightly off topic (sorry Unc) but I thought it might be interesting.

OO nearly missed you Eric .... I agree entirely about the sell by dates ...   here they are marked   'best consumed by'  and I still ignore those (depending on the foodstuff) Brie can be running off the board and I'll still eat it, in fact I prefer it like that    and a  bit of home grown penicillin is no bad thing      I'm fairly careful with fresh patés mind you.   

[UncleUB]

There has been an interesting opinion poll  here recently, regarding goods 'made in France'.  It was interesting to see that the majority (over 80%) of people said they prefer to buy French made/grown goods even if they are more expensive.  I've seen this in action in the supermarkets especially with fruit/veg.  In fact I do it myself.  I avoid the Spanish strawberries,  huge water filled, forced tasteless specimens,

I totally agree,we always look for British produce and avoid at any cost the tasteless rubbish that comes from Holland.

One example are pears(which I love),Morrisons a few weeks back were selling packs of 4 English Concorde pears from Kent and they were delicious,then a couple of weeks they were selling Concorde pears from Belgium, same packaging but they were totally tasteless.

We have lost the way in buying stuff in season,now anything is grown at anytime of the year and air freighted into the UK.Most of it tasteless rubbish........Mange Tout........whats that all about(squashed peapods)  ,the worlds gone mad,baby corn is another,Asparagus flown in from Peru !!!!

Give me parnsips in winter,English plums and pears September,English asparagus in May and satsumas and clementines at Christmas.

We need to get back to flavour and taste,not buying things just by looks,pick things up smell them,if theres no smell there will be no taste or flavour(unless you leave them in the fruit bowl for a month)

[scottiesmum]

Ooooooooooooo  Unc  ...    you'd love French shopping    the 'smell' test  plays a big part  ...  melons  - take the tip off and smell it  ....  tomatoes  ..smell the sunshine    ...      I won't go on  .....

[UncleUB]

Ooooooooooooo  Unc  ...    you'd love French shopping    the 'smell' test  plays a big part  ...  melons  - take the tip off and smell it  ....  tomatoes  ..smell the sunshine    ...      I won't go on  .....

I remember when the food and mouth epidemic was here,we were importing pork from France.The fat was about 20mm thick,yet no one was buying it 

It was delicious.....fat = flavour and you don't have to eat the fat after the meat is cooked.

A couple of years ago I bought a side of Gloucester Old Spot from the Chatsworth estate farm shop,the fat was in some parts nearly 1" thick(boy that lad must have had a good life),the taste was amazing 

[scottiesmum]

mmmmmmmmmm!  you're making me hungry now Unc         The pieces of veal and beef I bought for Christmas were enrobed in  a large piece of fat  .... as you say it all goes into  flavouring the meat in cooking  .....    AND we still get kidneys in the pork chops        Goose fat, especially for roast potatoes  .....  mmmmmmmmmmm!  and healthy  ....

[tuftedduck]

The pair of them will be getting on to the wine next...

[scottiesmum]

Is the sun over the yard arm ?        hic