Sell-by Stuff II

Wasted Food reader Ed was curious about sell-by dates, so let’s talk a bit more about them. While it varies by store, most supermarkets pull items the night before or on the morning of the sell-by date. Lance Parchment, Whole Foods’ Southeast region prepared foods assistant coordinator told me they cull products the night before the sell-by date. Fortunately, they give these items to a homeless shelter. But that store won’t even put a prepared food item on the shelf unless it’s more than four days before the sell-by date. 

Most people I’ve spoken with agree that the dates are cautious. Some say they’re overly careful. But the threat of multi-million dollar law suits tends to make people do funny things. “They give a pretty generous window with the sell-by dates,” said Steve Keenan, supervisor at the Capitola, Calif., Trader Joe’s. “I’ve brought home out-of-code bread, and ten days later, it’s fine. It’s the lawyers—they’ve made everything difficult.”  

I will say that I’ve seen items go bad on or before their sell-by date. Food companies don’t enjoy wasting food. They do it because they’re afraid of being sued and because in many cases it is easier than not wasting (more on that another time).    

Contrastingly, I’ve also seen piles of bagged lettuce dumped at a California landfill because the product wouldn’t arrive at stores more than a week before their sell-by dates. And I’ve eaten plenty of food way past the sell-by date. 

One solution is to donate food that is edible, but not sellable. There are plenty of food recovery operations that will often pick up these items and distribute them to those less fortunate. 

Another compromise is to put items approaching their sell-by date on sale. I’ve seen local chains Earth Fare do this with milk and Harris Teeter with chicken sausages. Harris Teeter occasionally fills a discounted produce rack, which I applaud (and peruse). Food Lion does the same with ripe bananas–29 cents/lb and perfect for banana bread!    

January 4, 2007 | Posted in Food Safety, Household, Supermarket | Comments closed

Sell-by Stuff

Wasted Food reader Brian raises an interesting question: Is there a rule-of-thumb estimate for how long past the sell-by date items stay good? After looking through my interview with Angela Fraser, a food safety expert at N.C. State University, I can generalize that most foods are fine one week past the sell-by date. 

Of course, this varies between products. Bagged spinach may go sooner, but eggs last three to five weeks past their date. Fraser recalled drinking milk 10 days past the “sell-by” that tasted fine. That’s why smelling the item is a more effective guide than any date stamped on the package.  

Food producers and stores view the sell-by date as the last day on which consumers can buy the item where it will still have a decent refrigerator life. Because they want you to have time to use the item, there’s some flexibility built into the date. Also, they have to err on the side of caution–manufacturers aren’t sure that stores will handle items properly and stores aren’t sure whether the product sat unrefrigerated on a hot loading dock for an hour before it reached their shelves. That’s where “the nose test” comes in.

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January 2, 2007 | Posted in Food Safety, Household, Supermarket | Comments closed

Trimming Our Wastes

Happy New Year!

With New Year’s resolutions flying left and right, the first of the year seems like an appropriate time to urge you to limit your household food waste. There’s plenty of room for improvement, about 25 percent of the food that enters our homes is thrown away uneaten (William Rathje, whose Garbage Project tallied Tucson trash, measured that 15 percent of family’s food ended up in their garbage. When he factored in disposals, it was 25 percent. And no, that doesn’t include trimmings like carrot peels).  

For the full argument on how to limit home waste, you can read my op-ed that ran today in Raleigh’s The News & Observer.

As for me, I’m trying to reduce waste in my house. I’ll be eating leftovers today as I watch some college football bowl games. Can you do the same?

Finally, 2007 marks the unofficial start of this site. I will now update it on a regular basis, and I hope you’ll sign up for the RSS feed or check back periodically.

January 1, 2007 | Posted in Household, Stats | Comments closed

Welcome

We Americans are pretty wasteful. And much of what we squander is food.

America throws away an estimated 40 to 50 percent of all the food it produces. That more than $100 billion of food a year. Equally important, there are millions of hungry Americans (more than 38 million) who could put some of that to use. Wasted food affects our culture, economy and environment. And when food remains are sent to landfills, we’re squandering a potential source of energy (I’ll talk more about that later).

I became interested in this topic when I saw just how much edible food–previously bound for the dumpster–a Washington, D.C. homeless shelter recovered from restaurants and institutions. Then I realized how much food wasn’t saved. As a journalist, I began to do some digging. More than a year later, I’m now doing research for a book on the topic. 

In the coming months, I’ll be keeping this blog as a companion to my explorations. I aim to make this site a way to follow a work-in-progress book project. Stop by anytime to read the latest anecdotes, data and revelations. And I hope you’ll feel free to comment and participate. Otherwise, it’d be a real waste.

December 20, 2006 | Posted in General | Comments closed