My friend is a dumpster diver!!!

[DisAuntie]

I know I'd be busy any time she invited me over for dinner. Gross.

 

[ceecee]

I know the owner of a grocery store who puts produce, fruit and baked goods that don't sell in a large box on top of a table near the dumpster. Somehow word got out that he did this and people come and get it. He said there are a lot of people in town who need the food, but like a previous poster stated you can't give it to them due to lawsuits but it's ok if they take it.

 

[arminnie]

There's an apartment complex for low income seniors near me where I have made many friends. The local grocery store gives them out of date produce to use as "compost in their communal garden". The food is individually packed and sanitary - so everyone knows that anything that can be salvaged is going to be eaten. But for legal reasons "it's for the compost pile".

I often take some of the produce and cook, can or process it into prepared food to return to them. I've been amazed at the great produce they have received - pineapples, mangos, greens, radishes, lettuce, squash, peppers. I've pickled radishes, made fruit salad for them, and even made a great pineapple jalapeno chutney that I canned. Sure I add some of my time and ingredients - but I enjoy doing it.

I also share things with them that I can out of my own ingredients. Sometimes I buy a huge bag of beans, pressure cook them and then pressure can them to share. I also do that with marinara too when we get tomatoes.

The food I've seen from the grocery store surplus has never been in a dumpster. It's just past it's prime for sale. For example the radish greens were old but the radishes were perfectly fine.

I think it's a win win for everyone.

 

[DisneyNutMary]

The company I work for donates all good, but not sellable product, which includes slightly damaged, bruised, close to code, etc. All severely damaged, past code, moldy, etc goes into a compactor. We have very strict rules on supply chain and temperature control. We would never allow our discards to be taken from a dumpster, as they have probably been out of temperature control for longer than is acceptable.
OP, your friend may be getting food that appears within code date, but if it has gone out of the temperature safe zone, she is looking at foodborne illness in her future. I'm surprised any responsible retailer would allow dumpster diving. It's a potential problem on so many levels.

 

[halfpintpeggy]

I know the owner of a grocery store who puts produce, fruit and baked goods that don't sell in a large box on top of a table near the dumpster. Somehow word got out that he did this and people come and get it. He said there are a lot of people in town who need the food, but like a previous poster stated you can't give it to them due to lawsuits but it's ok if they take it.

How generous!!

 

[halfpintpeggy]

There's an apartment complex for low income seniors near me where I have made many friends. The local grocery store gives them out of date produce to use as "compost in their communal garden". The food is individually packed and sanitary - so everyone knows that anything that can be salvaged is going to be eaten. But for legal reasons "it's for the compost pile".

I often take some of the produce and cook, can or process it into prepared food to return to them. I've been amazed at the great produce they have received - pineapples, mangos, greens, radishes, lettuce, squash, peppers. I've pickled radishes, made fruit salad for them, and even made a great pineapple jalapeno chutney that I canned. Sure I add some of my time and ingredients - but I enjoy doing it.

I also share things with them that I can out of my own ingredients. Sometimes I buy a huge bag of beans, pressure cook them and then pressure can them to share. I also do that with marinara too when we get tomatoes.

The food I've seen from the grocery store surplus has never been in a dumpster. It's just past it's prime for sale. For example the radish greens were old but the radishes were perfectly fine.

I think it's a win win for everyone.

That is amazing, I applaud your efforts to help these folks!

 

[halfpintpeggy]

The company I work for donates all good, but not sellable product, which includes slightly damaged, bruised, close to code, etc. All severely damaged, past code, moldy, etc goes into a compactor. We have very strict rules on supply chain and temperature control. We would never allow our discards to be taken from a dumpster, as they have probably been out of temperature control for longer than is acceptable.
OP, your friend may be getting food that appears within code date, but if it has gone out of the temperature safe zone, she is looking at foodborne illness in her future. I'm surprised any responsible retailer would allow dumpster diving. It's a potential problem on so many levels.

Yeah, I don't know??? I'm certainly no expert on the subject. However, the stores she went to didn't have compactors, just small dumpsters. Apparently she has been doing this for a LONG time with no sort of issues. I was worried about health concerns too, but when I rode along with her all of the perishables were still ice cold, we were there within less than an hour of the store closing. It certainly was an eye opening experience...

 

[halfpintpeggy]

I work at a food pantry and early morning weekdays, we pick up bread and bakery items outside the grocery store door on those shelved carts like you describe. Just might not be throw away items...

Your reply got me wondering...so I called that store & asked if they donate, sadly they do not as it's against their "policy." Such a shame!

 

[littledebbie335]

My first job in high school was at a Panera Bread. At the end of the day, we had to bag up any leftover baked goods and trash them, except for a couple of days a week when someone would come by and pick up the stuff for a soup kitchen. On the days that the food wasn't getting donated, I'd take some of it home! We weren't supposed to, but it was just going to go in the trash so our managers pretended they didn't see it. My parents and I ate a LOT of bagels and pastries when I had that job! There's certainly a lot of food waste in this country, so it's nice to see people use that "trash."

 

[DawnM]

A friend of mine owns a bakery and said there are so many government regulations about donating food that he can't afford to give day old product away. Plus if anyone would get sick on his donated food, he could be sued. It's just another great example of government regulation starting out as well intended and becoming ridiculous, bureaucratic and void of all common sense. Luckily he found a farmer who feeds his pigs the day old breads and baked goods.

The school district I used to work for donated their leftover food to homeless shelters, but then one year, someone sued. It stopped cold turkey and food was then tossed.

Very sad.

 

[DisneyMandC]

I support it. I've never heard of anyone doing it in my area, perhaps because I'm in a suburb and not a city, but I see nothing wrong with it. I would probably only take things that were wrapped (breads, potatoes in bags, apples in bags), but other than that I think if you're contributing to the end of waste and lowering your bills, go for it. We do have a very serious problem with food waste and consumer waste in this country.

 

[Art08]

I never knew anyone personally who would do it, in fact I never really knew about it until I watched a show called Extreme Cheapskates. I don't judge so if it works out for someone and they manage to not get sick, then more power to them. I personally could never do it with my OCD/germaphobia.

 

[scrhsa]

A friend of mine owns a bakery and said there are so many government regulations about donating food that he can't afford to give day old product away. Plus if anyone would get sick on his donated food, he could be sued. It's just another great example of government regulation starting out as well intended and becoming ridiculous, bureaucratic and void of all common sense. Luckily he found a farmer who feeds his pigs the day old breads and baked goods.

I was going to say something similar about working in a school cafeteria! You are right on when you say it's ridiculous and void of all common sense!!!

 

[Melissakay1q]

I worked at a low-income apartment complex for seniors and disabled and Whole Foods donated baked goods to the residents once a week. It was great to be able to offer boxes of bagels, rolls, loaves of bread, cakes and sweets at no cost.

 

[Melissakay1q]

I'm half tempted to try this for myself but with my luck, I'd get caught

 

[KarenAylwood]

I think it would turn my stomach too much no matter how "clean" it was. DH has OCD (the real kind, not the "I organize my socks by color" kind) and there's absolutely no way we'd ever get anything from a trash can for use in the house. But I mean, it seems to work for her. More power to her.

I see this being a slippery slope though. I've seen all sorts of sketchy stuff on Hoarders!

 

[QueenIsabella]

People would have different comfort levels with this sort of thing, to be sure. No amount of dollar savings is worth it if you couldn't bring yourself to actually eat the food! But it does seem like, in this land of intelligent, creative people, we should be able to do a better job of getting this perfectly good, unwanted food into the hands of people who truly need it.

 

[LadyD]

A few things about this. For all the people commenting "gross how unsanitary she is going to get sick", a lot of the cases of foodborne illnesses in the home are the result of improperly prepared foods, especially meats. Proper storage and preparation of food items is critical. It doesn't matter where the food came from if it is not stored and prepared correctly in the home, which a lot of people fail to do anyway. Before you jump to conclusions about the safety of what this woman is doing, look into where most of our food illnesses are coming from and do some research about why food gets tossed from the store and what types of foods can be salavaged in a situation like this.

Our country wastes way too much food. Good on this lady for doing what she can to make sure otherwise edible food is not going to waste.

 

[kymom99]

As far as the produce is concerned, especially things like apples, for heaven sake just wash it off. Who knows where it was or who touched it before it made it to the store. If you pick something out of the garden, birds might have pooped on it. Doesn't make it unfit for consumption.

It is quite a shame so much is wasted. My dad used to pick up frozen pizzas from a packaging plant to give to his st. Vincent DePaul clients. I'm not sure what the laws are but I suspect it's more a case of company policies. Our family resource director at our school used to pick up stuff from Panera to put in our teachers lounge

 

[Sargeant Tibbs]

The only non perishables that should not be consumed after the date on the bottle are the ones marked "use by" instead of "best by." The products that come to mind right now as a "use by" are mayonnaise and miracle whip, but there are a few others. I used to work in a grocery store, and one of my jobs was to pull outdated product and ship it back to reclaim, who then, I assume, sold it to outlet food stores. Certain product HAD to be thrown out, including all store brand products for some reason. Those were still good and we usually put them into the garbage inside thick, sturdy egg boxes so people could salvage. All outdated "use by" went into the garbage as well, as it could not be reclaimed. You should inform your friend, OP, of the difference between the two, and to avoid foods like mayo and ranch dressing.

I get outdated eggs and milk that's destined for the trash from a family member all the time. It's obvious if the milk is bad. I won't give advice on eggs, but I eat them for about two to three weeks after expiry.