Expired Bread: Dough Going to Waste
I was in a store recently, before dawn, to pick up some groceries and walked past the bakery. I stopped and back tracked to watch what was happening.
An employee was looking at different packaged bread then tossing a few here and there into a cart. The cart was pretty well full already and didn’t have much room left. Once she packed that cart, she grabbed another one and started filling it with pies, cakes, cookies, etc.
I walked up to her and asked if those items were expired, and she responded that they were. I asked what the store does with them. She replied that they package them all up and toss them in the trash compactor. “Really?” I asked again. “Yes, it sickens me to think how much this store wastes, we don’t even give it to a shelter, not even this time of the year.” was her reply. (It was during the holiday season)
It made me sick to my stomach to think that this was one store, on one night that tossed out 1 1/2 carts full of bakery items. Imagine what all these stores put together throw away in a year! And they go into a trash compactor, so you can’t even dumpster dive for the food.
I asked one final question, “If I wanted to buy those, would I get a reduction of price due to the expiration?” She didn’t think so, it would have to be run by the management, but seemed unlikely since many have asked and nothing has been done.
It is situations like these that frustrate me with our own food waste, greed and inconsiderate attitude towards those in need.
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Dawn C. is site owner of Frugalforlife.com and is residing in Colorado with her spouse, Teri, of 11 years. Dawn can be reached at Frugalforlife@gmail.com
Dawn: I’ve read that bakery waste (e.g. stale bread and crumbs) can be turned into animal feed. I’m surprised that somebody hasn’t turned this into a business… much like the organic fertilizer movement that recycles coffee grounds from neighborhood Starbucks.
Dawn,
Are you at liberty to publish the name of this grocery store? If so, I would be happy to join an effort to write to the management of this business and seek to change their disposal habits. And I will be thrilled to blog about it on my site.
Nina, that’s great to hear about. As someone who’s worked in food service, I can understand why those baked goods get thrown out (donating them brings up liability concerns for both sides and from a business POV you have to make too much since those are items you can’t quickly make more if you sell out) so making them into animal feed seems very sensible.
Julie – it’s a nice big store (Wal-mart). If it is only at that store or standard company policy, I do not know. One consolation is that they will give some expired cakes/breads to the night crew to eat (but not take home).
Lyle is right. Liability is the reason grocers and bakers do not donate their remaining goods. Until laws are passed (like the one pending in Florida) removing liability from the store when it donates goods, no major chain will take the legal risk.
It’s pretty sucky. From what I understand, there are other places where it’s illegal NOT to donate leftovers. Someone I knew from NYC said that he and his group had to do so.
Its also pretty awful that even the Employees are not allowed to take it home…
The “Managerial Theory” being that if they allowed the employees to take leftovers/expired items home they would be inclined to cook too many in the first place so that there WOULD be some for them to take home free. Thus costing the company Money.
By the way 1 1/2 carts at Wally World is pretty low…the one by me routinely has 4 to 6 carts full every day.
~ Roland
Don’t believe the liability lies. There are federal shield law (and most states have their own) to protect donors from lawsuits. They could still be sued, but the case would be thrown out, unless the company purposely tampered the food. It’s even less excusable with something like bread, that doesn’t need to be refrigerated.
Wal-Mart used to allow stores to donate food until a few years ago. It’s a shame because it could and should feed people. At the very least it should go to livestock or compost. I’ve seen cattle farmers take a pickup full of fancy breads and hog farmers are happy to get any kind of food.
As for the managerial theory–I’ve definitely heard that used, but it seems like yet another excuse to maintain the status quo of doing nothing. If a policy results in 4 to 6 carts of food waste a day, I’d say it’s not preventing overproduction.