Can You 'Steal' Food That Has Been Thrown-Away?

Mine too, slow cooked for a couple of hours with very close monitoring with a meat thermometer.

Yet if I hadn’t rescued it, it would have been in a skip in Mildenhall no more than eight hours later. Criminal.

If you hadn’t rescued it it would have been reduced further until it was at a price I would have paid… £1-£2.
Seriously, my wife got a goose that was stuffed with duck that was stuffed with something else that was stuffed with stuffing that had been £70-odd but was reduced to £5 the day before xmas eve that wasn’t even out of date! I joked that we should have waited another half hour to see how much further it would go…
Kids were eating American-style pancakes this morning, literally dozens reduced down to a penny each last night.

I’m just waiting to hear that someone has stolen food from a bin at the back of their local supermarket, got food poisoning and then sued the store.

Mine too, slow cooked for a couple of hours with very close monitoring with a meat thermometer.

Yet if I hadn’t rescued it, it would have been in a skip in Mildenhall no more than eight hours later. Criminal.

Moggy

Was that necessary? – my mouth is seriously watering!!;)

This made me laugh by its relevance

Tonight’s dinner, just gone into the oven (pot roast) two days after “imminent death” day.

Moderator vacancy will be advertised tomorrow.

Moggy

Absolutely. I don’t think any reputable charity would take the risk of giving anybody food-poisoning with food that had not been kept under very controlled temperature conditions; their liability would be clear under the law.

The ‘Freegans’ can take their own risks. In cold weather and depending on what they chose to eat I think they would be fairly safe…

…however the state of the inside of most ‘industrial’ bins would somewhat spoil my appetite! 🙂

If food is still in the supermarket then it will have been keep refrigerated and handled correctly. Once it’s in a bin you have no idea how it’s been kept . Unless Tesco start refrigerating their dustbins.

If it really is safe, why aren’t you down there raiding the bins yourself?

I don’t think this was a kind-of ‘let them eat cake’ suggestion! 🙂

I am sure Bob is perfectly capable of buying his food at the market rate and, personally, I agree with his sentiment; if the food is safe why shouldn’t it be used to feed those who would otherwise go hungry (the legalities of doing-so aside)?

I have no problem with ‘Freegans’; if they want to clamber into skips for their food then why not? Assuming, of course, that no damage is done and that there is nothing underhand then I have no problem with this practice.

I can’t actually see the health risk ‘difference’ between paying a reduced amount for a wrapped item with a ‘use-by’ date of today and then consuming it three days later, and picking said item out of the supermarket skip and eating it two days later.

Moggy

We do the same. We wouldn’t chance anything beyond a “Use by” date though and picking up cheap food in the supermarket is rather different to rummaging through the bins. Especially when the weather is warmer. Still, each to their own.

If it really is safe, why aren’t you down there raiding the bins yourself?

I frequently pick up short-dated bargain food from the supermarket ‘reduced’ bin and eat it days after it has allegedly become toxic.

So far I seem to have survived.

Moggy

I didn’t realise that a ‘Best Before’ date was required by (EU?) law on pre-packaged food…

…but the FSA is keen to point-out that this date is about ‘quality not safety’.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13115226

How much of the food wasted each year by British households (average £680 per year apparently) is due to our ‘cash rich – time poor’ way of life? Or how much is just due to ignorance about basic food storage or preparation?

Started by Marks & Spencer in the fifties. The “Use by” date is enshrined in EU regulations and is not being changed so far as I am aware and cannot be changed unilaterally.

Food ‘Best Before / Use By’ dates are a bit of a strange mixture really; certainly there are regulations intended to protect health (and I am sure the United Kingdom was well ahead of the EU with these as we went over to supermarkets much earlier) but there are also dates that the supermarkets ‘promote’ because it leads to much pefectly good food being thrown away and that is good for sales! What did Tesco say recently; was it 70% of their pre-packaged salad was thrown away, by them or by the (non-) consumer?

The law is, I believe, being changed to reduce this shocking waste of food; I think ‘Best Before’ dates are being phased-out and the consumer will have to rely on the, long forgotten, art of smell, taste and kitchen management (for those that have the time).

I think one culprit for excessive food waste is large ‘American style’ fridges (refrigerators)…

…too much temptation to fill them with food for meals you have not ‘planned’.

Most out of date food is perfectly safe to eat – even after a week or more – so rather than lobbing it into a skip, how about giving it to one of the many charities that go out and provide food for those living rough?

Why make the homeless suffer? Maybe you could eat it yourself? If it really is safe, why aren’t you down there raiding the bins yourself? Lots of free food that is perfectly safe apparently.

Good luck with that…..

how about giving it to one of the many charities that go out and provide food for those living rough?

I expect H&S would get involved and say it’s too risky to give shelf-expired food to the homeless in case it makes them ill!!!!!!!……

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Indeed so, so no one is going to accept the responsibility for “giving it” in case of the inevitable litigation resulting from someone becoming ill, how ever unconnected it might be to the rejected food.

Most out of date food is perfectly safe to eat – even after a week or more – so rather than lobbing it into a skip, how about giving it to one of the many charities that go out and provide food for those living rough?

I expect H&S would get involved and say it’s too risky to give shelf-expired food to the homeless in case it makes them ill!!!!!!!……

I remember this programme on eating ‘out-of-date’ food – http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1024879/The-best-challenge—One-man-boldly-goes-use-dates-food.html

Hi All,
Snafu very good :applause: But no sadly not actual telephone cards as some where rarer than others and worth quite a lot of cash used or new, one of the rarest was prison issue phone cards in particular unused like proverbial rocking horse dodo, still learnt my lesson and now just visit for the cards you mentioned, Busty Brenda’s and Nigela Norks’ are good goers :highly_amused:

Geoff.

Heaven forbid that it is better for someone to starve rather than be allowed to eat something that the label says is out of date by a few hours.

Food regulations are designed to keep us safe. How this can be twisted to be seen as a bad thing, I have no idea. Oh wait….the regulations come from the EU don’t they? It must be bad then..:rolleyes: