Sell by dates and wasted food

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Mad Cook

Master Chef
Joined
Jun 9, 2013
Messages
5,118
Location
North West England
There was a piece on the news tonight about a "pop up" restaurant in Bristol which collects out of date (but still good) food from restaurants and supermarkets and is cooking it and serving it in the restaurant. The customers don't pay for the food as such. They are asked to make a donation of whatever they think is fair and because the organisation is a charity and they are not charging customers for the food the "food police" from the local authority can't touch them. Their point is that sell-by dates on most foods are so notoriously conservative that the food has plenty of life left.

BBC News - Bristol cafe opens serving waste food from skips

Sounds like a good idea to me. Would you eat there?
 
I have no problem with the concept other than the fact that the food is coming from a dumpster. You really have no way of knowing how the items were stored or treated before being thrown away.

We have similar programs in my area where the local grocery chains donate food to local "soup kitchens" and food banks. In those programs the food goes directly from the grocers shelves to the charity that distributes them.

Wegman's grocery stores is one example. In 2013 Wegman's donated 16.5 million pounds of food (420 tractor trailers) to local food banks and food pantries.
 
I am positive that we've been served food that was long past the "sell date" and more than likely long past the "use before date" or "best before" date and charged full bore on the price for the privledge. So I think I would consider other factors before declaring if I would or would or would not eat there. How clean does the place look? How clean are the people working there and do they have long scraggly, greasy hair hanging all around their faces? What does their apron look like?
 
if i want to eat expired food, i'll stay home and cook it myself.

if i want it to taste good, i'll go over to the chief's house...
 
I have no problem with the concept other than the fact that the food is coming from a dumpster. You really have no way of knowing how the items were stored or treated before being thrown away.

We have similar programs in my area where the local grocery chains donate food to local "soup kitchens" and food banks. In those programs the food goes directly from the grocers shelves to the charity that distributes them.

Wegman's grocery stores is one example. In 2013 Wegman's donated 16.5 million pounds of food (420 tractor trailers) to local food banks and food pantries.
I heard a subsequent interview which made it clear that the "dumpsters" were a bit of journalist's licence. The restaurants gave them the food directly, by-passing the skips.
 
I am positive that we've been served food that was long past the "sell date" and more than likely long past the "use before date" or "best before" date and charged full bore on the price for the privledge. So I think I would consider other factors before declaring if I would or would or would not eat there. How clean does the place look? How clean are the people working there and do they have long scraggly, greasy hair hanging all around their faces? What does their apron look like?
I check out those things not matter what the restaurant is doing.
 
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