Category Archives: Supermarket

Taking Inventory: Supermarket Waste

After years of silence on the topic of food waste, our federal government has released a study on the topic. The Economic Research Service (ERS), the research wing of the Deptartment of Agriculture, has kicked in with a study on supermarket food loss (view the full report here). The long-anticipated (at least in these quarters) […]

March 26, 2009 | Also posted in Stats | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

A Whole Foods worker wanted to eat one of the 30 tuna fish sandwiches that he was supposed to throw away. He set it aside and then the boss objected and threw it out. The guy was then fired for proposing to eat something that was going to be thrown out anyway. Nice. The worker […]

March 20, 2009 | Also posted in Composting, Friday Buffet, Household, Restaurant | Comments closed

Recession Concessions

Sometimes a little belt tightening is healthy. Lord knows we’ve had our national belt on pretty loosely these last few decades. The economic downturn might help by forcing businesses and individuals to examine their habits. This USA Today piece on hotel budget trimming had this tidbit buried toward the end: When [the] Hilton Anaheim anticipates […]

March 17, 2009 | Also posted in Composting, General, Waste Stream | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

Eureka! Folks in that California town are thinking about installing a digester to turn food waste to energy. — — Word out of England is that some pols want to ban “buy one, get one free” deals. The Liberal-Democrats’ rationale is that stores are luring people to buy more food than they need, causing unnecessary […]

March 13, 2009 | Also posted in Food Safety, Friday Buffet, International, Tree Gleaning | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

The Ohio EPA is teaming up with grocers to try to get them to compost their food waste. As much as 70 percent of some stores’ trash is food waste! — — Meanwhile, students at Santa Clara found that 42 percent of their trash was food waste. And 70 percent could have been recycled in […]

February 27, 2009 | Also posted in College, Composting, School, Waste Stream | Comments closed

Shopping Day(s)

With a baby arriving any day now (my wife is past her due date), I’ve been hesitant to do much meal planning. I don’t want to be in the hospital fretting about that whole chicken in the fridge. As a result, I’ve been grocery shopping on a day-to-day basis. I have to say: it’s not […]

February 4, 2009 | Also posted in Farmers' Market, Household, Personal | Comments closed

Wal-Mart Reinstates Food Donations

Big food waste news: Wal-Mart will donate 91 million pounds of fresh food to Feeding America (née America’s Second Harvest). The program is an expansion of an earlier pilot donation program. What The Times article doesn’t say and Wal-Mart is happy to sweep under the rug, is that some of its stores used to donate […]

November 19, 2008 | Also posted in Food Recovery | Comments closed

Improving Expiration Dates

Many in the supermarket industry look forward to the days when all items have RFID tags. These tiny transmitters would essentially eliminate the need for check out registers, dramatically cutting stores’ labor costs. A new kind of RFID tag that University of Manchester (UK) researchers are developing could help reduce waste. The tags would be […]

September 25, 2008 | Also posted in Food Safety, Household | Comments closed

Disastrous Waste

WF reader Bess recently wrote in to discuss food recovery in the wake of natural disasters, particularly hurricanes like Ike. It’s an tricky topic, as storms create both a real need for food and plenty of food waste from power loss.  Stores are often forced to throw away all perishable foods. Even after they regain power, […]

September 19, 2008 | Also posted in Food Safety, International | Comments closed

Pineapple Express

Here in Portland, it’s all about New Seasons Market (and coffee and bikes and beer). The nine-store chain is like a hometown Whole Foods with a heart. Reasonable, friendly and local. Add non-wasteful to that list. A little birdie told me that one of the New Season’s Portland (Seven Corners) stores leaves out some of its food that is […]

September 10, 2008 | Also posted in Food Recovery | Comments closed