I’m talking about cans, boxed goods and other non-perishables that go past their “best by” or “out of date” date. I know they get taken off the shelves, but what happens after that? Do they just go to a dump? Do they go to churches and food banks? I’d hate to think otherwise good food just gets tossed away into the trash.
You hope they get taken off the shelves. Mostly they don’t. And mostly they don’t check. And mostly the consumers don’t check. When I worked in a grocery store, the non-perishables were never checked (only the perishables were checked some of the time where I worked — currently I notice Wal-Mart’s bad about not even checking the perishables). Mostly they depended upon the system of stock rotation (new items are placed behind or below the old items) to move the old stuff.
I saw some perishable items that were at the sell-by date be placed on manager’s special (when a manager puts something on sale). I never once saw non-perishable items placed on manager’s special because of their date.
A certain cash register dealer I’ve worked for hired me to program a custom add-on module to the cash registers he sells, to do exactly this. If you entered two different records into your PLU file (the price list for all products) both for bananas at two different prices, then when the cashier rang up bananas it would pop up a menu showing both prices (and they could each have their own product description too) and the cashier could choose which price to ring up.
I don’t know if the dairy industry is still this way, but expired milk was picked up and reprocessed into casein derivatives. One would hope that that meant paint and adhesives (remember Elmer’s Glue?).
A lot depends on the quantity the store has–two cans of elderly beets vs. a palletload of cereal. It’s not the problem it once was thanks to computerization for inventory control and barcoding.
It depends on the store, their own policy, and the nature of the item.
One grocery store in my town marks meat at 75% off on its sell-by date. I’ve gotten some terrific bargains this way. 
Another one had a whole refrigerated endcap of Chobani yogurt, a couple days past its sell-by date, at 10 cents a package. I purchased 20 and there was nothing wrong with it. Other stores simply mark it down, or discard it, or donate it, whatever their policy is.
Some stores will mark down not-so-fresh meat a great amount. Things like steaks and chops in my shopping experience are still good, but I’ve had some nasty surprises from ground beef.
There was a large food store in Salinas CA that had a largish sign reading, in effect:
Some of our canned goods have past their expiration dates. We have a statement from the producer that the contents are still good.
Back in the 60’s there was the BITCH test - a talking point about intelligence testing and cultures (it was Black Intelligence Test Correlated for Honkys"). One of the questions was:
What color is a banana?
The correct answer is brown - the stores in the black section sell the stuff the white stores throw out.
And that dog you had didn’t really go to a farm where he can run around happy all day, either.
I knew a pig farmer who had a side business picking up expired dairy products and processing it into pig feed.
This Jon Oliver video talks about whether the food gets donated (it doesn’t), the misconceptions people have that someone can sue if they get sick on donated food (they can’t) and the reality that to a large degree dates on food don’t mean that the food can’t be consumed after the date.
We used to buy outdated bread products and feed it to the pigs. I don’t think “processing” is the term I’d use; we’d stand on the back of a pick-up truck next to the fence with a load of old bread and a garbage can. We’d tear off the wrappers and throw the food over the fence and throw the wrappers in the can.
The pigs, incidentally, loved it. They liked bread in general but they loved sweets. So when we throw things in like twinkies they’d go chasing around the pen for them.
That was fascinating and reinforces what I’ve thought all along about dated food at grocery stores.
Thanks for sharing.
Looks like we may be a bit more strict over here. Food, fresh or canned etc. can have three different dates:
USE BY… Eat before the date, may be detrimental to your health
SELL BY… A date the shop should of sold it by but still alright to eat
BEST BEFORE… Ok to eat but may not be as tasty as the time prior to the date shown
AFAIK it is an offence to sell or offer for sale food past its **use **by date. The other two are considered ‘advisory’. After all, if you buy some tinned beans on their ‘sell by’ date, it may be weeks before you actually eat them.
There is a great deal of pressure on supermarkets here to stop dumping expired food and to donate it to organisations that can make use of it. The number of sandwiches thrown out is amazing. I also saw a TV programme recently where I was astonished at the amount of chicken a KFC outlet throws out. They were experimenting with freezing some of it and passing it on to a homeless shelter.
Personally, we use our own judgement. I have used cream well over a month past its date for example. As I understand it, the manufacturers err on the side of caution as they have no control over how it is stored once sold.
I think if the expiration date isn’t too great in the first place, it has a good chance to be sold at some discount store like Grocery Outlet. Otherwise, my guess is it gets thrown in the garbage if grocery stores are anything like restaurants and what department stores do with unsold paperbacks.
In the US the dating of foods (with the exception of infant formulas) is not a requirement, regulation or law. It is a construct developed by the food manufacturer to limit the perceived shelf life of food, so that they can sell more.
Some of it gets marked half off or more and I snap it up!
I used to purposely shop at night at a 24 hour grocery to snag a gallon of milk about to expire for two bucks and other dairy products(big fan of cottage cheese).
For non-perishables the dates are total bullshit, cheap food for me!
I know someone who works for a charity and he gets lots of donations (from local grocery stores) which are a day or two past the “sell by” date.
Our local Fred Meyer (a.k.a. “Kroger” for those of you on the East coast) is very good about putting price discount labels on meat, dairy, and bread, which is getting close to the “sell by” date. If the date says the 24th, you can expect them to slap a 50% off sticker on it around the 23rd and then, if no one buys it, it’s off the shelf on the 25th.
They send it to China. Everything here is out of date.
Our Price Chopper and Hannaford donate out of date non-perishables to our local community action agency. They use them to pack up emergency food boxes for those less fortunate.
The perishable (fruits and veggies) items are set up on tables for people to take as needed. Day old bread, bagels and rolls are also set out on tables.
They also have a huge refrigerator filled with pies and cakes, and other goodies that are just a few days past their “best by” date.
You just sign a clipboard and take whatever you want. Around here there is no reason for anyone to go hungry, unless they’re too proud to accept charity.
When I was homeless at 11pm every evening I’d wait outside a high class grocery store in a wealthy part of London and be given a bag of out of date food - often priced £100 or more.
Some of those “out-of-date” items mysteriously end up in the laundry room of my apartment complex. We have a “freebee table” in there where somebody dumps stuff like bread, pasta, dented canned goods, going-bad fruit and the like. The other day there was a jumbo ziplock full of 2-week old chopped lettuce. This has been going on for a long time but the mystery old food donator has never been identified. It’s almost like someone works at a food bank or something and can’t stand to throw anything out.