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?

Pauliar,

This is old news. There are charities that rescue food just before expiry for the homeless. Stuff that has expired cannot be sold even though it may well be edible.

Yes I'm aware of that SM, 'ÓzHarvest' operates in our area, look them up. At my wife's church kitchen they have 2 regular businesses that donate, a bread shop and green grocer, most appreciated. The bureaucracy plays its part in the madness. My step-daughter years ago worked for an importer of fine European foods for the deli trade. She brought home a large tin of Greek feta cheese, not because it was out of date, but because its date stamping was in the wrong format and it all had to be dumped.

What I'm talking about here is not simply business inefficiency leading to food waste, but an orchestrated business model by corporations that has allowances for large amounts of waste built in, after all its all about the bottom line and not some sort of moral responsibility.

We had a cyclone up north, and the banana crop in the region was destroyed, about 5% of Australia's total crop, big news at the time. Bananas shot up to over $10/kg in supermarkets. My relo told me that as there was this "great shortage of bananas" at the same time they were dumping perfectly good pallets of bananas, due to lack of demand. I suspect the supermarkets were controlling supply created by panic, to maximise profits, that is a common practice by the big retailers. I buy at a independent green grocer (same bloke as above), and his prices are consistently half that of the Big Two, and his quality is just as good or better, even though the big supermarkets buy volume at cheaper wholesale prices, hard to explain.

there could be liability issues so they chuck it into a locked bin where people can't get it.
Armchair Critic,
One can just imagine the bandwagon starting to build up speed !

Hi Indy,

Once we cut off your wasteful aged welfare, saving us struggling taxpayers $25 billion/year, and put you onto the National Seniors Service you will be earning your tucker in no time. Yep, a bowl of hearty 2 minute noddles and a carrot stick, a cup of black tea and a slice of week old dry bread, every night, a choice between chicken or beef noddles for variety, just to keep you heathy for tomorrows effort at ditch digging. All that to take back to your taxpayer provided tent for a nourishing dinner after a hard days yakka. How does that grab you! can't wait I suppose!

Paul1405,
We could save double of that if we got the likes of you out of the Public trough & made you live off your merits !

Paul1405,
If you're so against Welfare then you're bleating from the wrong camp.

wasteful aged welfare
Paul1405,
Investment for retirement pension has never been Welfare, it was insidiously named welfare by the insidious Left after their organisation (Labor) squandered the whatever was in the coffers but now blame the Coalition for that.
It was God Whitlam who's outfit first made the move on the old age pension but in utterly undeserved defence of him, the following Coalition did nothing to reverse it.
Since you're constantly suggesting we should give up our pension, may I suggest you repay the pension your parents received from us ? After all you benefitted from OUR taxes all that time !

Pauliar,

How do you classify time spent in Jail?
-Full-time employment?
-Self-funded retirement?
-Welfare?
-Social housing?
-tertiary education?

For gods sake try to grow up a bit Paul.

There is no way in a modern society, with large cities you can avoid some waste.

If someone is a bus driver in a large city, with absolutely no input to their own food production, that food has to be produced elsewhere. It has to be transported in volume from tens or thousands of kilometers away to a facility of distribution, usually a shop in our society.

Now some of us are pretty good at logistics, although as we see in the UK with their fuel supply, just a minor slipping cog can destroy the system. To allow for minor hiccups an excess must be programed, or some will go hungry. Fortunately any leftover will be the less appealing & will still fulfill a useful function of fertalising the playing fields or gardens to be built on the expired land fill.

It is great that someone is using some of these leftovers for a useful purpose, but it is the nature of the modern world that there will be left overs, as I said, without them some would go hungry.

The Leftie Bogans south of Cairns are having a Mullet throwing competition or at least that's what I thought I heard on 'our ABC' a few days ago. The radio jockey said it'd be great fun for all.

SM, for someone who claims to be educated you certainly have a problem with comprehension. I fully understand in an imperfect free market with supply chain inefficiencies, logistical problems and unpredictable market forces etc, there will be waste, regrettable but true. What I am raising her is what seems to be orchestrated condition of waste on the part of large supermarkets as a mechanism to control prices and maximise profits, without any consideration to the moral aspect. I gave the example of the bananas, where a small percentage of the total crop was lost because of a cyclone. Media hysteria creating a false panic concerning supply, which played into the hands of the big retailers, who up'd the banana price by as much as 300%, although their wholesale price remained the same, due to contractual arrangements. My relation told me that at the time his supermarket warehouse was dumping bananas.

Put simply the big two supermarkets have almost a duopoly on the supply of fresh food, and appear to manipulate the market to maximise profits.

The fuel supply problem in the UK is down to the pathetic handling of Brexit by the incomperdent Conservative government of Bug Ridden Boris.

"will still fulfill a useful function of fertalising the playing fields" Not 6 pallets of legs of fresh pork will fulfil the job of fertilising.

BTW; People in glass houses should not throw stones SM, what is "fulfill" and "fertalising", wombat!

Media hysteria
Paul1405,
yes, your leftie friends !

Paul1405,
Anything that is meant to be good for all simply grates you to no end !
I'd not be surprised if even the Greens rejected your application for membership !