# Good food being thrown away **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 28, 2016, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-food-being-thrown-away/758637 "2016-06-28T18:15:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2016, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-food-being-thrown-away/758637/41 "2016-06-30T14:25:53Z")
I know a food packager who pays to have a huge dumpster full of vegetable peels, rinds, seeds and guts hauled away weekly as trash. He could sell it for animal feed, at a minimum get it taken away for free for that purpose, but he’s afraid of liability issues. They may be imagined issues, but I can understand his caution, he doesn’t want a pig farmer suing him because all his livestock got sick from some kind of contamination. Certainly he’d have to make sure his employees weren’t throwing other trash in that dumpster, especially cleaning products. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2016, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-food-being-thrown-away/758637/42 "2016-07-01T06:19:56Z")
> [@boffking](#): > > The point I was trying to make is that if the food is “gross looking” but still good to eat, it could be made into something else where you don’t see it. A misshapen orange could be turned into juice, a bruised apple could become pie filling, etc. That’s what I meant by my first sentence. Walmart is not in the ‘used’ produce business. If they were consistently getting bruised lemons they would not ‘make lemonade’ with them to try and make a profit, they would simply switch lemon wholesalers. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2016, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-food-being-thrown-away/758637/43 "2016-07-01T10:51:03Z")
> [@Anny\_Middon](#): > > The trend as grocery stores here is to process fresh fruits and veggies somewhat and then sell them at much higher prices. They not only have a fresh-squeezed juice bar, but also containers of cubed melon and pineapple, shredded carrots, mixed salad greens, and the like. > > I always assumed that at least come of the produce that is used for this purpose is the stuff that’s perfectly good but ugly. Am I wrong? You are correct, but to a very small extent in our company. Most of what goes into our cut fruit, juice and smoothies are perfectly saleable fruit. Sometimes at a slightly different stage of ripeness. Juicing oranges aren’t sold as oranges. They are a different variety. Their skin looks rather mottled, if that’s the word I’m looking for. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2016, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-food-being-thrown-away/758637/44 "2016-07-01T10:56:20Z")
> [@Mighty\_Mouse](#): > > Juicing oranges aren’t sold as oranges. They are a different variety. Their skin looks rather mottled, if that’s the word I’m looking for. That would depend on whether you mean multicolored or not. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2016, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-food-being-thrown-away/758637/45 "2016-07-01T10:59:00Z")
> [@treis](#): > > I’d be surprised if any chain grocery store is actually making their guacamole in house. Yes we do, and sell it for more than double the packaged stuff. In salsa the price difference is even bigger. We do us a small amount of “cosmetically unsaleable” fruit and vegetable for these purposes, but the cost of the tomatoes, onions, chiles, etc in the salsa is less than 10% of the retail price. Labor is several times that. The waste of unsold store-made products is very high, since they usually have to be sold eitger same day or next day. The packaged salsa may be good for ten days of two weeks. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2016, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-food-being-thrown-away/758637/46 "2016-07-01T15:15:41Z")
> [@Mighty\_Mouse](#): > > Juicing oranges aren’t sold as oranges. They are a different variety. Their skin looks rather mottled, if that’s the word I’m looking for. Actually, it’s kind of the opposite - oranges with brown spots are sorted out in the packing plant to be sent to juicers because consumers tend to prefer “unblemished” fruit. While Valencias are the [primary juicing oranges](http://innvista.com/health/foods/fruits/orange-varieties/) in the US (because they’re juicy!), they are readily [available as fresh fruit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valencia_orange)as well. The “pretty” ones are cleaned, polished and often waxed to make them look their absolute best before being shipped to your local grocer. ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2016, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-food-being-thrown-away/758637/47 "2016-07-01T18:02:35Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Why? They already make stuff like bread, roast chickens, tortillas, cookies, cakes, potato salad, etc… Guacamole is a lot easier than any of the above, and if your only other option is to just throw it away, rather than give it another day or two of potential shelf-life for sale, why not? I doubt that handful of limes, tomatoes, garlic, peppers and onions costs much of anything, even if fresh, and if they’re smart, they’ll cherry pick the about-to-be-unsaleable ones there as well. > > I’ll take a look the next time I’m at my local Fiesta grocery; if anyone would make fresh guacamole in-house, it would be them. Here’s a previous thread about it: > **[Are the prepared foods in the grocery store deli case made in the store?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=757231)** > > Are the things like coleslaw, potato salad, pasta salad, etc., in the grocery store deli case typically made in the store or are they generally commercially prepared stuff that comes to the store in big plastic buckets? I know there will be... Sounds like it varies from chain to chain and store to store. And it’s not the cost of the ingredients so much as the cost of labor. It seems unlikely that, for example, a store is making cookies in house. More likely they are getting the dough shipped in and bake them in the store. I’ve never seen an employee cracking eggs and beating dough. Perhaps it’s done in a back room or I’m not there at the right time, but I doubt it. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2016, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-food-being-thrown-away/758637/48 "2016-07-01T18:57:57Z")
> [@treis](#): > > Here’s a previous thread about it: > > [Are the prepared foods in the grocery store deli case made in the store? - Factual Questions - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=757231) > > Sounds like it varies from chain to chain and store to store. And it’s not the cost of the ingredients so much as the cost of labor. It seems unlikely that, for example, a store is making cookies in house. More likely they are getting the dough shipped in and bake them in the store. I’ve never seen an employee cracking eggs and beating dough. Perhaps it’s done in a back room or I’m not there at the right time, but I doubt it. Well yeah; I meant grocery stores as a generic entity, not any one chain or location. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2016, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-food-being-thrown-away/758637/49 "2016-07-01T19:44:52Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > You really don’t. > > I’ll say this: “vegetable oil” is to actual vegetables as rape is to marriage. The extraction process, hydrogenation, and the base material it is extracted from (the brown-gray sludge found at the bottom of a grain silo from rotted corn and soya) would be enough to put Jabba the Hutt off his feed. > > Stranger Distilled water from poop is just water. I’m not seeing any issue. ---
**Author:** ![tadtooornamental](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@tadtooornamental](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tadtooornamental)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2016, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-food-being-thrown-away/758637/50 "2016-07-02T21:46:50Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > it’s only a start, but there are some charities out there who will pick up still-good-but-unsalable food from grocery stores and restaurants and distribute it to “soup kitchens” and domestic violence shelters. [Forgotten Harvest](http://www.forgottenharvest.org/) is one such organization which operates in the Metro Detroit area. > > which reminds me, I need to renew my donation to them. Walmart does this, too. It’s even mentioned in the article linked in the OP. Bananas and avocados are probably the biggest produce donations (at least in my area) because most consumers prefer to buy these items underripe. As soon as they reach the not-rock-hard stage, they are sent out to Second Harvest/Feeding America, which distributes them to local food pantries throughout the area. The produce that gets thrown away (composted, really) in my area is stuff that you cannot sell for health reasons, like moldy strawberries and peaches with the skin ripped off in spots, not stuff that most people would gladly eat, as long as they don’t have to pay for it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-food-being-thrown-away/758637.md?page=2)