Cycling Related

Everyone knows that supermarkets and other food retailers waste food - it gets thrown away because it's near or past its artificial "sell by date", or because it's misshapen or discoloured. Freegans who raid supermarket bins for this food can be harassed and arrested.

Organisations like FareShare are addressing these issues with great success, collecting food that would otherwise be binned and redistributing it to community kitchens, food banks, and people who run soup kitchens and the like for street dwellers. Just as one example, the amount of bread that FareShare rescues every day in my city alone is utterly astounding.

Lidl have been trialling a scheme in which they sell boxes of misshapen or otherwise "rejectable" fruit and veg for £1.50. They are on sale each day until midday, after which they are given to organisations like FareShare. Will this encourage more people to stop rejecting less-than-perfect-looking veg? Or should Lidl just give all of it away and not try to sell any of it?

Morissons do a misshapen veg range but its all prepackaged. Nob heads

https://my.morrisons.com/wonky-fruit-veg/

Lidl are just after marginal profit.

Yes, packaging the stuff is very disappointing! I like the Lidl boxes - apart from anything else they are useful in the shed (unless they empty them into carrier bags at the till, that is). Lidl are after marginal profit, of course they are, and I think they have made these look like the posh organic veg boxes so beloved by townies who can afford them, perhaps to encourage more people to try them. After all. there was a time when Lidl and Aldi were avoided by what you might call food snobs - not any more though.

What annoys me is that in many supermarkets, pre-packaged fruit and veg is cheaper (price per kilo) than loose fruit and veg. And a lot of fruit and veg is only available pre-packed.

Bonkers!

I think I'd rather see it given away, I would hope that all of it would then go to those that really need it, whereas I'm not sure that would be the case if it's on general sale. Is there a limit on purchases? It's not unusual to see people in Tesco empty every single reduced loaf of bread and piece of fruit and veg out of the baskets and into several trolleys and take the lot.

As a slight aside I dislike the terms like "wonky veg", it's veg, that's it, veg.

Sonic Budgie wrote: ↑

7 years ago

I think I'd rather see it given away, I would hope that all of it would then go to those that really need it, whereas I'm not sure that would be the case if it's on general sale. Is there a limit on purchases? It's not unusual to see people in Tesco empty every single reduced loaf of bread and piece of fruit and veg out of the baskets and into several trolleys and take the lot.

As a slight aside I dislike the terms like "wonky veg", it's veg, that's it, veg.

Yes, "wonky" is not a good moniker but I think it's one that might fade away once (if) people become accustomed to just buying what's available, whatever shape it is?

That hoovering-up behaviour is known as "yellow stickering", and for some people it is, well, a hobby. It does mean a diet comprising a lot of meat, convenience-food items, and ready meals though. Fresh veg is a bit less desirable for a lot of people, as there are fewer options as to what to do with it. You can freeze bread, meat, and ready meals, but not things like lettuce. And veg like courgettes, and tomatoes, peppers, etc, need input in the form of cooking to preserve them.

Having spoken to people who run the local food bank, my understanding is that generally, they're not short of fresh food. They request supplies of dried food, jars and tins, as well as hygiene and sanitary products. If that's the case more widely, then I quite like the Lidl approach.

Yes, food banks often want things that people never think of, like instant mashed potato and pot noodles - many of their clients have no access to cooking facilities beyond a kettle. But community kitchens, pop-up cafes, lunch clubs, soup kitchens ... they all LOVE fresh produce.

Rutabaga wrote: ↑

7 years ago

Yes, "wonky" is not a good moniker but I think it's one that might fade away once (if) people become accustomed to just buying what's available, whatever shape it is?

That hoovering-up behaviour is known as "yellow stickering", and for some people it is, well, a hobby. It does mean a diet comprising a lot of meat, convenience-food items, and ready meals though. Fresh veg is a bit less desirable for a lot of people, as there are fewer options as to what to do with it. You can freeze bread, meat, and ready meals, but not things like lettuce. And veg like courgettes, and tomatoes, peppers, etc, need input in the form of cooking to preserve them.

Or, as in the case of at least one person we both know of, something of an obsession or quasi-religious pursuit...

Rutabaga wrote: ↑

7 years ago

Yes, "wonky" is not a good moniker but I think it's one that might fade away once (if) people become accustomed to just buying what's available, whatever shape it is?

That hoovering-up behaviour is known as "yellow stickering", and for some people it is, well, a hobby. It does mean a diet comprising a lot of meat, convenience-food items, and ready meals though. Fresh veg is a bit less desirable for a lot of people, as there are fewer options as to what to do with it. You can freeze bread, meat, and ready meals, but not things like lettuce. And veg like courgettes, and tomatoes, peppers, etc, need input in the form of cooking to preserve them.

My local Tesco, which I'm sure is not unusual, wheels out the trolleys at specific times, there will be a gang of yellow sticker enthusiasts waiting from around half an hour beforehand, they then descend with elbows flailing and trolleys and baskets brandished as soon as the poor assistant has the misfortune to hove into view. I'm not a fan.
I'd say they were animals, but that would be an insult...

Last November, I was in Tesco's near the yellow sticker bit at yellow sticker time. One crew of people grabbed huge armfuls of stuff, then moved a little bit away to sift through to see if they really wanted it. The stuff they didn't want they just discarded.

I'd rather spend another pound to keep some self respect.

LowlifeDes wrote: ↑

7 years ago

Last November, I was in Tesco's near the yellow sticker bit at yellow sticker time. One crew of people grabbed huge armfuls of stuff, then moved a little bit away to sift through to see if they really wanted it. The stuff they didn't want they just discarded.

Well that's certainly another bugbear, where does this need to pick up each individual identical item, squeeze the living daylights out of it before slinging it back from whence it came, come from?

This didn't even include returning the stuff to the yellow sticker point. They discarded it where they were.

Regulator wrote: ↑

7 years ago

Or, as in the case of at least one person we both know of, something of an obsession or quasi-religious pursuit...

That's not very subtle. I thought we were consciously avoiding bad-mouthing people when it doesn't add anything to the discussion.