Give 'out of date' food to homeless
SUPERMARKETS have been told by the Government to donate out-of-date food to feed the homeless.
Environment Secretary Hilary Benn has written to all the major retailers urging them to sign-up to schemes that help the vulnerable in society, instead of sending edible produce to landfill.
He singled out the national charity FareShare for its work in relieving food poverty. It collects "surplus" food which is still "fit for purpose" and distributes it to the homeless, elderly people and families who struggle to make ends meet.
It promotes the message that "no good food should be wasted", sending out thousands of meals from its 12 depots around the country. It hopes to expand to a total of 30 sites. Mr Benn said: "Last year, FareShare redistributed food to 600 local charities, benefiting 29,000 people a day.
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"The food redistributed contributed towards 7.4 million meals and helped businesses save 14,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions. I have just written to all of the supermarkets to say if you are not supporting FareShare's work, I think you should."
Ministers have been concerned about the amount of food thrown away by supermarkets because it has past its "best before" date or does not meet strict guidelines on appearance.
Mr Benn wants to see labelling improved: "We are working with supermarkets on sell-by and best-before dates which are different to use-by dates, which is concerned with food safety. It is pretty clear there is confusion with customers."
The Government's new food strategy calls for "clear, unambiguous date labelling, food storage and usage guidance". It also suggests using surplus food from retailers to generate energy through anaerobic digestion or producing fertiliser and compost.
The strategy insists big changes in the food supply chain will be driven by consumer choice, not Government intervention.
Mr Benn added: "A growing number of retailers now sell apparently less-than-beautiful fruit and vegetables, which consumers are snapping up because it's how they taste that really matters."
Former Labour farming minister Lord Whitty last year called for an end to two-for-one offers on junk food, crisps and biscuits to tackle the mountains of waste sent to landfill and improve the health of the nation.
But Morrisons, one of Britain's so-called Big Four chains, hit back insisting it was wrong to "deny the people the opportunity to by in bulk, crisps or biscuits".
Some supermarkets have agreed to develop "buy one, get one free later" deals which would still give discounts without risking excess food being thrown away.
41 Comments
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by Charles Henry 1945-(diuturnity), Somersetshire
Wednesday, January 20 2010, 9:44PM
“:| Quote:- "The point is that any policy which simply provides unsold food to homeless people is not going address the underlying issue of homelessness."
No one is suggesting for one moment that it will Oliver. . But if you believe that giving a homeless drug addict a free meal will encourage him to continue with that miserable existence then someone needs to give you a slap. . I am not a social worker; I am a retired businessman who has had some dealing with a few of these unfortunates.”
by karen, s/wales
Wednesday, January 20 2010, 7:53PM
“talk about being kicked when you're down,why don't the government give them vouchers to use,then they can have fresh edible food!!! they could also set up more food kitchens for the homeless,after all the majority of them have been made homeless by the government!!”
by Jo, Berks
Wednesday, January 20 2010, 7:07PM
“Oh and Oliver - if you didn't make so many contradictory / irritating points my comments would be shorter!”
by Lesley, Cornwall
Tuesday, January 19 2010, 8:12PM
“We used to have a shop, at the end of each daywe would give all our food, that would be past its sell by date the next working day, to the Kitchen for the Homeless. Then we were told they couldn't accept it any longer because of legislation-I am talking about 15 years ago, but it has taken this long for our so called "leaders" to realise what a stupid decision that was-and how much food is put into land fill that could be safely consumed.”
by George, Truro
Tuesday, January 19 2010, 1:56PM
“Or we could give it to the MPs to eat thereby saving taxpayers a fortune in expenses!”
by Anon, PZ
Tuesday, January 19 2010, 11:34AM
“a cynic, there are 2 different types of out of dates on different foods, one is the use before usually on dairy/meat products which they advise shouldn't be used after the date for health reasons and the other is a best before, usually on bread, sweets, cakes etc, there is nothing wrong with this food usually for a good week or two after the date and as the shops can't sell it beyond this date they may as well give it away!!!”
by a cynic, Falmouth
Tuesday, January 19 2010, 10:33AM
“I can see the headlines now: " homeless sue supermarket for D&V outbreak from out of date food". This is the real reason supermarkets won't risk giving away OOD food, and in today's litigious society, I can't blame them.”
by Mary, Polzeath
Tuesday, January 19 2010, 9:23AM
“Isn't it funny who the government has discovered the community a few months before an election, perhaps they think this will help us forget the trough feeding by them, they were also living on free handouts IRONIC isn't it”
by kate, cornwall
Tuesday, January 19 2010, 4:22AM
“I doubt my local Morrisons will take part - they seem to prefer leaving all their out of date stuff on the shelf waiting for idiots like me who don't have time to study each item I buy and so rush round picking things up on my way home from work, only to get home and see that the ham or yoghurt has to be eaten within a day or two or the bread is already a day out of date. Oh and broken halogen lightbulbs that I accidently picked up and bought as they were on the shelf ready to be sold - and was given a patronising look when I came back to return them (nearly £4 a pack!) as tho to say 'you broke them'. I hate supermarkets and what they represent and I wish I had the time in the day to shop in smaller/high street grocers/bakers/butchers! *rant over*”
by max power, st austell
Monday, January 18 2010, 10:51PM
“The organisation I used to work for got regular calls from a supermarket to collect approx. 1 bin bag goodies +4 or 5 of bread prods. We only used the goodies as we had a contracted supplier, so we were never a customer. The bread prods were wasted. I asked the manager if I could give the bread prods to some oap's, he said if I did we would not get another call...was it because they were tomorrows customer?
Of course, no good food should be wasted.
@Freethinker
Conservatives denied their say on the EU, conservative voters and M.P.'s don't give a t*ss about carbon footprints but Cameron does looks like more of the same?”