General Chat

I found a couple of cartons of untouched icecream in the bottom of my freezer. It would have been bought 2009 or earlier. I ate it. It did have a lot of ice in it, but I didnt suffer from any sickness.

Carol.....
.I know that small outlets have always given left overs etc to charities, but it's the big supermarkets that have been very slow to decide not to throw good food into the landfill.
They have had to have perfect fruit and vegetables etc.

I never remember when you went to a greengrocer you got perfect shapes .
You just got veg out of a sack and weighed and not prepackaged.

The supermarkets have a lot to answer for and these days the poor farmers don't get the prices they used to and so they have so much waste as well.

It is not new for shops/bakers to give to charities.

I remember back in the 1960's when I was training for my NNEB with Children's Society, looking forward to the boxes being delivered on a Saturday evening. (No Sunday Shopping)
Matron/Sister would sort it & bring any fresh cream cakes/ into the staff room for us. Loaves were sliced into rusks size & put into the cool oven of the Aga to dry out over night.
Soft fruit was put into jellys.

Brenda ..............

we do indeed hail from the same area, and we were raised by mothers and grandmothers with similar values!!

My parents and maternal grandparents (never knew my dad's parents) all went through WW1, the Depression and WW2 when "make-do" and "stretch the food" were all important.

Mum and Dad were 11 and 10 respectively in 1914, and out working by 1916 because their mothers needed the money. Mum's father was in the forces, and Dad's dad had died before the war began but his eldest brother was in France. Mum was not allowed to take up a scholarship for further education because "the money is needed", so they both left school at 12.


.......... and OH's mother was equally thrifty.

Brenda,

that goes back to the days when rival websites' full urls were not allowed, don't think any of that applies nowadays..........(@) (.)

Marie,....I wasn't sure if you had to disguise the trade names as we used to do,so I erred on the side of caution.

Sylvia,....I think you hail from the same part of the world as me,,,,albeit slightly later.!..... but,we have similar values and cook wholesome meals with whatever we have to hand as we were taught to be housewives.

We have recently eaten the last of some greengages I froze in 2010 and they were fresh tasting and delicious, though they looked brown rather than green.

I'm a bit careful with use by dates and don't go much beyond a day or two after. I don't throw much away though, just try and use the product up. Best before dates are exactly that and you can carry on eating the products for as long as they seem OK to you.

I'm getting to be a dab hand at making a meal out of leftovers and stuff that's past it's best, though I can't compete with Sharron :-D

Brenda .......

We cook a large casserole, shepherd's pie or fish pie just for the 2 of us ................. have 2 portions, and then freeze the rest in single portions for use as and when.

OH and daughter went to NZ in 1992-93 for 10 months and I stayed here for 7 of those. I'd have a big cook-in over the weekend, and freeze much of it, so I had quick hot meals when I came home from work during the week.

Before now, we've found ice cream buckets full of fruit frozen 5 and 6 years ago ......... you name it, blackberries, gooseberries, red currants etc etc

We thawed them, smelled them .................. and made jam :-)

I cleared out my chest freezer a couple of days ago and must admit I threw away some gooseberries I had frozen about 3 years ago and a couple of left over bits I had frozen quite a while ago,but I rarely throw away food,even though I live alone.

I never like to be without something in so that I can make a meal if someone comes.
Being of a certain age I think we were brought up to never waste and make our homemade dinners and soups etc.

I found a carton of pears I had stewed in blackcurrant purée. Must be a while ago and I had some with ice cream tonight after my meal and they were delicious.
I'd forgotten all about them!
Must use up ,like you Ann,before I start to hoard again!

There are supermarkets here (NE England) that are selling "wonky veg" boxes, the mis-shapen stuff that people would usually discard. They're excellent value and quality.

I ignore use by dates and instead apply the sniff test - if it smells OK it's edible.

By the way, why put Te*co instead of Tesco?

The stuff I have thrown had a lot of freezer burn, we had one day when we hadn't noticed that the freezer was switched off for about 5 hours. most stayed frozen but some stuff looks as if it thawed and re-froze, that is what I am gradually getiing rid of.

One of the chain grocery stores over here has started to put damaged, bruised or mis-shapen fruit and veggies into special bins, and selling them at a lower price instead of discarding them. After all, most organic veggies or fruit, as well as the ones you grow in your garden, are not perfect!

The problem is that shoppers now expect only perfect ....... colour, shape, ripeness, etc ........... and will refuse to buy the green pepper with a small white mark on it, or the not-perfectly-round orange. That seems to apply even when they are insisting on organic fruit and veggies!

There are some Health and Safety issues over here that have hampered stores wanting to send close to out-of-date food to charities, although many are now doing it to at least some extent.

Mind you, some charities can be really picky ..............

The Botanical Garden where I used to work has a demonstration Food Garden, and it became a tradition in the early 1990s that the veggies and fruit would be given to one of the charities that makes food for or gives fruit/veggies to homeless people. Our volunteers would pick whatever was ready on a Wednesday, put it into boxes, and then someone from the charity would pick up the boxes on Thursday morning. The system worked well.

Several years later, the charity said they would only take the food if it was taken to them. Yeah ............. our volunteers are mainly women, mainly between the ages of 60-80, and had problems lifting and moving around boxes of stuff. Not to mention, not being enthused at driving alone into the Downtown Eastside down-and-out area.

The Sally Ann has been receiving the food since then ....... and coming out to the Garden to collect it.


AnnG ............. we're the same as you. OH does the weekly shop on a Friday, he buys Black Forest Ham for my lunch sandwich ............ and I usually find that the best before date is 1 or 2 days before I actually have the last of it.

But that is only the Best BEFORE, or BUY Before date ............. food is usually fine to eat a week or more after that date. It just means that the company does not guarantee that it WILL be good.

Plus, we find well out-of-date stuff in the freezer!

My daughter sticks quite religiously to the dates that food should be kept in the freezer, and has been known to waste food because it has gone past that date, or not taken advantage of a good deal .......

....... my philosophy is that if it has not freezer burnt, and the freezer has not failed, then food should be good even after 2 or 3 years. It may not taste quite the same, but it will be edible

I think my OH is one of the kings of the offers shelf. Happily buying ham that is offered on there and proceeding to eat it for three dates from buying. Recently we have had stewing type beef anf also chicken thighs on the last date. Both were cooked and eaten the following day. Although i do usually freeze what I buy on that shelf.


However I am guilty at the moment of having to throw some frozen food out which is about 3 years old and which was buried in the freezer. We have had a purge the last few weeks eating out of the freezer and found stuff even i wont eat! It will go in the food bin and be used to make electricity and fertilizer (apparently).

The way I understood it is that they are going a step further by going for zero and they showed a place in Gateshead who are making meals for vulnerable pensioners and they never know what they're getting ,but make delicious meals they really enjoy.

My point is that this could have been done a long time before it has now become a race between supermarkets.

People are guided too much by sell by dates and have become the throwaway society without using their own senses.

If they were really hard up they would have to learn to make the best out of what they had

Several supermarkets have been trialling such schemes particularly since France introduced a ban on food waste last year. Morrisons was the first to introduce a complete scheme and now Tesco is doing the same. No doubt the others will followe.

Much food is also wasted by not being accepted by supermarkets (wrong shape etc) that is also being addressed.

Well at least let us give them credit for doing it now. I think there has been a bit of pressure put on all the supermarkets. I seem to remember signing a petition not so long ago re this.

Brenda
I believe some places including M&S do this already.
Tesco is playing catch up me thinks.

Just heard on Breakfast TV that supermarkets,specifically Te*co are trying to reduce their food waste to zero by giving left over edible food to charities.

Any of us could have told them to do that a long time ago.
Well better late than never! :-S