Talking to a relative yesterday who works in a cold store for a large supermarket chain in Western Sydney. I could not believe the amount of food waste in this place, pallets of pork etc, passed their use-by/best before dates literally thrown out, dumped, wasted. I'm told in other areas of the business from the warehouse to the retail outlet food waste is systemic. I recall when living in Sydney a homeless friend offering me a packet of biscuits he had shopped from the dumpster behind the supermarket. The dumpster was his 'El Dorado' of goodies until the supermarket put a lock on the bin. I'm sure many of us feel guilty when we chuck out the left over curry from last week, or that rotten tomato left too long in the fridge. With so many hungry mouths in the world, including in Australia, we should feel ashamed at the food waste we allow ourselves.

Paul don't beat yourself up, Google "Famine or Feast". Most young people will not eat stuff near its use by date but I pride myself on a quick sniff and taste test and tuck in. When I worked for a large food Company a director pointed out to us that food should not be sterile as we need to regularly encounter the germs that surround us and ensure our immune system gets a work out.
Also the third world loses a similar amount to poor storage but much less to waste.
The food industry does not do this to annoy you every bit of waste is a cost to them first and passed on to us next. Lots of waste food is also fed to animals so not wasted. You would not believe what Councils charge to accept food waste into land fill.
Any ideas you have would be gratefully accepted but I am sure that it would not be as you envisage.

There are food kitchens in Western Sydney supplying over 1,000 cooked meals each day to families in need. That is just one where my son in law assists on weekends. They also get excess food from companies for food parcels also going to struggling families.

I agree Jose' there are food kitchens in many places where some in the community, both business and individuals, donate to help mitigate hunger, which is an unfortunate, but still a good thing. What I was concerned with is this systemic waste on an industrial scale by large corporations as part of their business model. Added to this is our own personal waste of a cheap item, food. You often speak of "sin", well what we do with food wasting is morally wrong, do you not agree?

In a country of 25 million, which produces enough to feed 65 million, why there is hunger defies belief.

A lot of people like to use the word 'unbelievable' to describe things.
I usually counter with the opposite - 'completely believable'.
I reckon this is one of those times.

Did you think they give that food to hungry people.
Of course not don't be stupid, there could be liability issues so they chuck it into a locked bin where people can't get it.

I used to work for Coles when I was a teen.
They throw out plenty.

I'd thought the supermarkets had become pretty good at marking down perishables to avoid waste. Am I wrong on this?

The idea of eliminating food waste sounds attractive, but is it really desirable? If the waste is avoided, it will eventually result in less being grown. But then what if there's a crop failure? A sudden short term need to cut waste is easier to deal with than a sudden short term need to increase production. Am I missing something?