Throwing away hoarded food.

Many people overbuy as a matter of course. They never plan ahead, just wander around the supermarket, throwing whatever catches their eye into the trolley. A lot of it, especially fruit and veg, ends up in the bin.
Sadly, many people have never learned to cook, or budget. They rely on ready meals or something frozen and chips. Perhaps being isolated at home, with time on their hands, might result in some of them trying to learn.
It was certainly a shock to see the shops almost completely cleaned out of food. Luckily I always have enough in to last a couple of weeks, apart from milk, otherwise I would have gone hungry. I wonder how many people did!

I have a lot of mine still, didn’t overbuy veg etc as I knew the veg shop locally has it. I did freeze some things so I still have that. I recall people with so much broccoli etc and I remember thinking this will go off at the time.

These snippets of photos of bad things like this and the people going to beaches is just that snippets of bad behaviour. Where I live everyone is behaving responsibly and I do hope the government realise this.

Our police force were on the local news and he gave a huge positive response to people being responsible in our area and I thought brilliant someone being positive for once.

The irresponsible ones are going to make our one hour exercise become 0.5 miles from home for five minutes unbelievable,

Dear artdecogran I totally agree with you absolutely disgusting. I dont waste anything. Freezer always full of leftovers, including mash potatoes, which will be used for fish cakes, patties and more. I try to work out what we will have for week based around my fortnightly veg box, fantastic seasonal veg.

I ordered a mixed fruit and veg box from a local supplier on Friday evening. The delivery day was stated as 3 to 5 days but it arrived yesterday (Saturday) morning. Fabulous service and what wonderful fresh produce. There was a loaf, 4 pints of milk, butter, eggs, apples, kiwi fruit, potatoes etc. etc. The problem was I’d only just come back from shopping in Asda (I flashed my NHS ID badge and got in before everyone ?) so my fridge was already full. My son said “we’ll never eat all that mum!” So I phoned Hope Restored our local homeless charity and took most of it up to Brenda there. They were thrilled to bits! Now why couldn’t those greedy hoarders have done that?! If those pictures of waste food are true of course ?‍♀️

maybe they can take it to food banks .tins of stuff can last ages .fruit well that can be made into smoothies. can you put a notice up someplace saying this . i will be doing so... i have got my neighbours giving me their fruit.and veg....i will be putting a notice by the food bins...it is a waste ...

Absolutely abhorrent. I predicted this as soon as I saw all the shelves being stripped bare of perishable food. One of the pictures even showed what looked like perfectly good bananas being chucked out, presumably bought in a panic but not actually liked by the buyer. Crazy!
Now they have ditched all the food they bought 2 weeks ago are they going to rush out and buy more again?!
A lot of us are sensible but I think for the sake of us all some sort of rationing does need to be brought in. I would be quite happy with it as I doubt it would restrict me at all with the quantities I buy and I would be reasonably assured of getting things I do need.

I feel like I am suffering a bit now from not hoarding as the restrictions in my local shops are really strict. I have no proper fridge (have a tiny camping fridge) or freezer at the moment as my new kitchen has been postponed.
I wanted to get enough tinned or packet food to last us fo at least a week as I don’t want to go out. I had to put stuff back as I wasn’t allowed it. Example I couldn’t have sweetcorn as well as peas or mince beef as well as chicken.

Oh well those panic buyers/horders can chomp away on their stash of toilet rolls now they are throwing away the food that has perished because they couldnt (didnt know how to) use it to make into soup to freeze and veggies that could have been frozen.
I think the supermarkets in general are getting to grips with the situation now and have put in place measures to prioritize the elderly and all front line staff. Theyve also set out queueing distances. Long may it continue. After this methinks all supermarkets and food shops etc will be revisiting and updating their Risk Assessments

Cant help thinking that this is why we are now seeing so many sick & dying. All the pushing & shoving to buy too much food (&TP) that they will eventually have to throw away could have done much to spread the virus.
Being old & disabled I had no choice but to use what I have got. When its gone its gone but at leasit will have been eaten. Most of my food waste is from my geriatric, about 90 year old tortoise who insists on walking on his food. Love him tho!

Oh come on. Many people take real satisfaction in store-cupboard and meal planning. Just as many do not. Just as many dislike cooking. Many who normally eat out a good deal don't know how much food to buy. Others can't obtain fruit and vegetables in small enough quantities. Many supermarkets shoppers shopping for more than one householders. No one buys quantities of leeks and cabbage from greed, surely?

IMO it should not have been left to the supermarkets to monitor this in the first place. The Govt's initial ill thought-out message, delivered at zero notice, telling all over-70s to stay at home and have their food delivered caused this chaos. Entirely the wrong message. Supermarkets couldn't cope - not enough vans and drivers, food supplies in the wrong place.

Huh - So that's where the broccoli and eggs I couldn't find went.

I just bought normally using village coop. No waste here...

Even if they bought so much, I can't understand why they did not freeze it. I saw one picture of breaded chicken. I knew what it was as my son buys the same product, that could easily have been frozen. I have bannd takeaways in my house as I don't want any people coming to door unnecessarily.

My husband was in Morrisons yesterday & a woman was loading her trolley with ALL the large multi packs of crisps.
He politely asked why she needed so many & could he please have a packet & it would be a good idea if she left some for other people. She went mad & told him in no uncertain manner where to go. He told her she was a very rude & selfish person & he was going to alert a staff member- which he did. On his way back he saw her in another aisle & she was delving in a freezer so he grabbed a packet out of her trolley. Hopefully they stopped her at the check out.
I mean CRISPS- hardly a staple food.

These photos were taken outside student accommodation for the foreign students who had literally hours to pack up and go.

Not everyone has the will or ability to cook for their children.

If children at home without school meals are being fed crisps 3 times a day then at least theyre being fed something . Some wont get fed

I dont need crisps I can and will cook. Some people DO NEED convrnience foods. Not everyone can or will cook. At least then kids can fend for themselves a bit.

Let her have her crisps. Nobody with a trolly full of crisps has the ABILITY to make balanced meals like I do

I think a lot of people are sensible and think about others but sadly there are those who just think about themselves.
I think they should have rationed items much earlier to be fair to all.

MOnica
Try

We know that there's a general problem with people wasting food in this country, they're not going to suddenly stop because of the current situation!

It beggers belief that food is thrown away in times like these.
Why not give it to a local nursing home/food banks the list could go on .
Selfish is putting it mildly.

I think its absolutely disgusting that GNers family members are snatching from other peoples trollies.

You dont know what they do or dont need.
They may have severely autistic family members that refuse all but one food.
They may spend 23 hours a day in bed with depression or pain syndromes and cant send young children to others so need easily grabbed snacks.

Shame on your husband!

I think some of these comments are nasty and smug...‘virtue signalling’ gone mad.

Yes, there are stupid uneducated people around, and selfish people, but most families are trying hard to feed themselves and their children in very difficult circumstances.

How smug we are with our fully stocked chest freezers and compost heaps. Most people haven’t got room for large freezers and some don’t have a garden either.

Yes....of course throwing things away is wasteful, but I think people are panicking/don’t know how to cook and are just trying to survive day to day, in lockdown.

Yes...hopefully there will be lessons learnt, but meanwhile could we at least try to be charitable.

I think many people don't know about basic housekeeping, what foods will keep and what will not, how to cook ahead and batch cook for the freezer. My husband said he saw a lot of people buying cookbooks. We love to watch the cookery programs and look at the glossy pages, but many don't actually do the cooking from scratch and know how to use ingredients wisely. They may also not know you need containers, freezer bags etc to store meals in. Perhaps they will learn now.

Peoples electricity is getting cut off too re throwing out freezer food! School staff are spending their own money on people's ekectric meters.

People in temporary accomodation, homeless bnbs etc don't have kitchen space and need non perishables and convenience foods

I would like to point out that "planning", i.e. stocking your cupboards and freezers, making soup etc. probably meant that other went without their normal shopping.
I was determined not to panic buy. I went to the supermarket at 10am on my usual shopping day, only to find the shelves empty. So I have had to live out of my normal freezer stock for a week. Please think of others, food is not in short supply.