Expired Supermarket Food: What Happens To It?

The Atlantic:

As darkness falls, your local supermarket becomes a hive of activity. From canned vegetables and salad dressings to fresh fruits and deli meats, countless items are removed from shelves by night staff. Approaching their expiration dates or because they are no longer at their peak quality, most stores consider them unfit for sale. With 15,000 different products in an average supermarket and 25,000 in a superstore according to the Food Marketing Institute (FMI), retailers in the U.S. are lumbered with endless pounds of past-their-prime items every year.

Photo by Flickr user: rick

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Comments

[Dead Parrot]

12:42 PM on 01/11/2012

There are about 150 food rescue organizations scattered across the US. They specialize in collecting this food being pulled off the shelves for marketing purposes and making sure it doesn't go to waste if it is still wholesome and edible. It can have a huge impact on the lives of the less fortunate in the community. Our local food rescue in Iowa City was able to collect over one million pounds of food last year and distribute it to agencies that serve the hungry and homeless population. And this is from a city with a population of just under 70K. You can check out their site here: www.table2table.org
There is no reason good food should be tossed when there are so many who need it. Every city and town should have one.

[Jackcravell]

12:46 PM on 01/11/2012

What a great idea! We waste too much food in the United States. Thanks for the link to their site.

[OutAtFirst]

11:52 AM on 01/11/2012

A lot of the stores in my area are marking down food that is soon to expire by about half. I haven't paid full price for a steak or pre-washed lettuce in months.

[BurritoT]

11:06 AM on 01/11/2012

when nobody is looking I lick all the vegtables I can

[Jackcravell]

12:47 PM on 01/11/2012

I wash every vegetable I buy ;-)

[archarabia]

09:33 AM on 01/11/2012

Thank you for running this article. I've always wondered what happens to all the items that are pulled off the shelf when they expire. But i think it would be more altruistic and less wasteful if stores donated and sold a portion of their food to food banks and shelters while it is still fresh and valid.

[kingofthenet]

01:47 PM on 01/10/2012

My problem is knowing how far out companies date their products, for example I have Campbell's Soup that goes out to late 2014, so if someone wanted to buy it 'slightly' expired in early 2015, where has it been for the last FOUR years?

[RachelJaee]

01:33 PM on 01/10/2012

I worked for a snack food distributor and we sold into supermarkets, independent markets, delis etc. The supermarkets we worked with had weekly pickups of 'expired' food for food banks and other food charities. Our company was responsible to pick up our own expired product but we essentially did the same thing and donated the product to food banks.