Trader Joe's dumpsters are full of fresh, nutritious food

[Liberal_in_LA]

A new documentary about food waste could dampen grocery chain Trader Joe’s crunchy image.

"Dive" illustrates the waste of wholesome food by following a group of “Dumpster divers,” people who mine trash bins for usable products. In the film, the divers are not homeless or even particularly poor; they just don't like to see good food go to waste, and they like to get stuff for free.

“In the United States, even our trash cans are filled with food; you just have to go get it,” director Jeremy Seifert says during the film’s opening sequence.

The “freegan” divers – Seifert, his wife, Jennifer, and a bunch of their friends – discover large quantities of fresh meat, vegetables and fruit in bins behind a couple of Trader Joe’s stores in the Los Angeles area. Seifert is appalled that so much food that is not spoiled and not past its freshness date is being discarded.

But Seifert says the target of his film is wastefulness, not Trader Joe’s.

http://eatocracy.cnn.com/2011/07/29/freegans-dumpster-diving/

[FarCenter]

1. Any word on what they found behind Aldi's?

[dana_b]

2. oh I believe it

my best friend's daughter has done it a lot and you wouldn't believe the stuff that she came home with. A family could eat for a week!

[fishwax]

16. I can imagine

I've never done it myself, but have known people who did (for food as well as for home furnishings) and they've found an amazing amount of stuff.

[jillan]

3. I love Trader Joe's. I hope this doesn't bring them down.

[Drahthaardogs]

9. The pretentious soccer mom crowds kill me there.

They do, however, have a really nice drinkable Barolo wine that they sell for $16. It is a steal.

[jillan]

25. I love their premade frozen meals - no preservatives, great prices & tasty.

And their coffee, and their breads, their selection of natural soaps and lotions...

I don't care who is shopping there. I just go in, get what I need, and get out.

[housewolf]

26. It's mosre likely to force them to make their trash more inaccessible

You know, lock it up better so that people can't get to it

[greymattermom]

4. there are amazing amounts of this food

my daughter and a group she's traveling across the country with spend almost nothing on food. this food is everywhere. it's illegal to pick it up, but usually the police don't care and just tell them to leave.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

5. The local Trader Joe's donates its leftovers to food shelves and meal programs

So it's not a nationwide problem, nor is it unique to Trader Joes.

[jwirr]

21. The Second Harvest Group brings it to the food shelves in our area.

[spanone]

6. i'll shop inside, thank you

[napoleon_in_rags]

7. Every store is

At every food store I've worked for, we would do a cycle and throw at all the food approaching its expiration date... That date is put there by lawyers, so the food can be good long after it passes that date.

The only answer to this is the smart phone discount: The food has a price, and a smart phone readable thing. A computer gives smartphone users an individual price, based on a black box algorithm, which can be WAY lower than the shown price when they need to clear the food off the shelves. The algorithm can adjust prices and production to compensate for lost profits for people who pay less who would have paid more, etc. This is the kind of smart system you need to prevent food waste.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

8. Fresh Choice

I don't know if they still do this, but at one point I believe they donated food to local homeless shelters EVERY DAY OF THE WEEK.

Of course, it would be ideal to see Trader Joe's partner with Second Harvest or some other agency that could come out and retrieve the food.

Another good example is Popeye's Chicken. The food is essentially cooked to order, and if it doesn't sell, it gets thrown out after a specified time.

Fast food places like Burger King and McDonald's cook the food, set it under heat lamps, and sell it cold to any rube who pulls up to the drive-through window.

But the rest of the restaurants / fast food places could do more...with help.

[RobinA]

18. Actually, No

McDonalds does not sell any food that's under a heat lamp for an undetermined amount of time. The food has a scheduled throwaway time the minute it comes off the grill and at that time it's supposed to be tossed. McDonalds is very elaborately routinized in very aspect of its business to insure quality. You can like McDonalds or not (it is, after all, fast food), but they run a very tight ship when it comes food handling. Probably better than almost any upscale place with god knows what going on in the kitchen. And yes, I'm sure there are some bad apples.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

20. OK, that may not be true for McDonald's, but for Burger King, it's the GOSPEL truth.

I know this because the owner of a restaurant in a local mall "food court" knew a man who owned a Popeye's and a Burger King.

And the Popeye's went under because he couldn't turn a profit.

The Burger King is still there because the food sits under a lamp until people buy it. The restaurant owner TOLD the other owner this. That's why his Popeye's went under and his Burger King didn't, because he SITS on that shit ALL DAY LONG until some sap buys it.

The owner said most of the profit from Burger King came from school kids buying a Coke or fries but NEVER the meals, SELDOM the burgers.

I don't know what happens when / if someone orders a burger. I guess they cook it. He's GOT to throw out the old food at SOME point.

But Popeye's closed down because they were throwing out food every day. I actually asked about donating it to a food bank and the second-hand response...from the owner who knew the owner, not the guy himself...is that there was something wrong with the logistics.

I didn't push for details because I wasn't there for that...I was there to hopefully make him a client. That didn't happen, and he's gone too. But the Burger King still stands.

[gulliver]

10. Good news! The chained cost-of-living index can actually go down...

...People can fill their market basket of goods for free from dumpsters. No need for Social Security COLAs for a while. Think of the savings.

[MedicalAdmin]

11. DS? Dumpster Security - the new 3rd rail?

Wow. Actually I need to check this out. There are a couple of upscale places not far away. If I can get food for free, in a few months I could afford a freezer to store it in...

Hmmmm..... Of course I'm disabled so I might not be able to get out of a dumpster after getting into it, but as long as their is food....

[CTyankee]

22. I can see organized groups of seniors going out to dumpsters now!

Sort of like the seniors getting on buses and going across the border to Canada to buy their meds...there'll be a whole new niche of people helping the elderly, the "Dumpster Diver Service" which will be organized by AARP nationwide...sort of like the security people for people who have fallen and can't get up...

[MedicalAdmin]

34. A whole new generation of commercials.

"Help, I've fallen in a dumpster and I can't get out."

"Clap on... Clap off... Clap on... The tuna."

[undeterred]

12. In this day and age most cities have well organized food pantries

with huge freezers and they are ready and waiting to pick up the food that stores can't sell.

The one I go to actually offers a hot meal 3 times a week so that anyone can come in and sit down to a meal at the same time they shop for their weekly groceries. Its a shame to waste food in this economy and its a shame to make people dig in a dumpster for food too.

[onethatcares]

13. you can bet

there will be a run on dumpster locks today. Buy stock in Master Lock company quick.:shrug:

[thelordofhell]

14. Why isn't there an orginazation that will pick up "unfresh" food

And use it for shelters and the poor or even prisons.

[fishwax]

19. "Food Not Bombs" is one

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_not_bombs

There was an episode of Bizarre Foods that followed around one such group in San Francisco. They dumpster dive and use the food they find to serve free meals to the homeless and others: http://stag-www.travelchannel.com/Video/dumpster-diving-for-food-17898

[Marrah_G]

27. Because they are afraid of lawsuits if someone gets sick

[Morizovich]

15. "Freegan"

:rofl:

[fishwax]

17. There was an episode of Bizarre Foods that showed freegans who dumpster dive to provide free meals

for people in the Mission District: http://stag-www.travelchannel.com/Video/dumpster-diving-for-food-17898

[saras]

23. Most stores' dumpsters are - but most stores have dumpsters that crush everything.

[Riftaxe]

24. And there are laws and regulations in place

to ensure that the only place decent food goes past it's arbitrary expiration dates is the dumpster.

Some places cannot even hold bake sales for community support of things like schools these days.

[Ohio Joe]

28. Details

Why should anyone care if, giving the food they are required to throw away by law, would be safe for either the people that ate it or Trader Joe's after they got sued? They are evil for not doing it anyway.

[Hatchling]

29. San Diego Trader Joes freezes it on Do not sell by day.

And then gives it to the local charities. Sometimes they just deliver it to them on the day it expires. It's still good for a few days after that date. It was awesome the day I got a edam and fresh arugala pizza.

[greytdemocrat]

30. It's been mentioned before

The food is thrown out because it MIGHT get someone sick
and even kill them.

It's a legal thing. And I don't blame the stores. All it would
take is one homeless person and a lawsuit. Boom, no more store,
jobs and lives ruined.

[Trekologer]

31. You don't know WHY it is in the dumpster

The sell-by date might even be expired. But you don't know why it is in the dumpster. Maybe it was recalled. Maybe the refrigerator it was in broke. Maybe a careless shopper picked it up and then left it somewhere where it shouldn't have been. Maybe someone bought it, took it home, and returned it. You just don't know.

I worked for many years at a supermarket. I would never dumpster dive something even if it looked perfectly good. I don't know why something was in there. But I know that when I threw what would look to others as "fresh, nutritious food" it was anything but.

[joshcryer]

32. I sometimes drive behind the local Wal-Mart to avoid cars and every time I see them dumping food...

...I think back to my activist days dumpster diving and weep for all of the people in the world who are malnourished. It's just beyond the pale. Perfectly good food, a day or so past the "expiration date."

[Obamanaut]

33. This story was here about a month ago. There are reasons other than just the

expiration date that could cause stuff to be tossed. Contamination, recall by mfr., recall by gov., etc.

Here's the old thread which has numerous responses http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=439&topic_id=1349694

[budkin]

35. Every single fastfood restaurant in the country has a bin full of edible food

That is counted and thrown away at the end of the day. It horrified me when I worked at McDonald's as a teen.

[dembotoz]

36. we waste vast amounts of food

and it is thrown away for a reason--lawsuits and medical bills.

i don't think any store or restaurant owner likes throwing away product.
Product cost money. Wasted food is wasted money.

having a reputation for a quality product means you do not serve product that is not quality.

I DO worry about the concept that product is not good enough for our customers but is perfectly ok for the poor......

I worked a big corporate picnic in the past couple of weeks. It was catered. The company doing the catering "hired" a number of private non profits to help bus tables and the like. This is the catering companies biggest event and this allows them to staff it. It was a wonderful quick 1 day fundraiser much better than washing cars..... but i do have a point here. The picnickers could get
plates of food from various stations--no limits-all you can eat. People would get multiple plates and them take 1 item from each and we would bus the rest. I would have loved to take a bunch of those plates home with me--food looked really good-but if i got sick--can i sue the caterer?????

At my local aldi's as food approaches the dump date it gets discounted.
I love it. Picked up a roast and some steaks yesterday--all pre dump date but cheaper.
win win
good for aldi's and good for my family.