I'm pleased to see the supermarket Tegut taking up the "Taste the Waste" banner. In the September issue of the customer magazine, Marktplatz, there are features on the film and the supporting book, as well an interview with the filmmaker Valentin Thurn.Recipes using leftovers, tips about what sell-by and best-by dates really mean and examples of what the retailer does to minimise the problem are a good start. But the most important job to be done, along with optimising the supermarket planning and logistics system is to change people's expectations.
We're used, in these instant gratification days, to being able to get anything we want, at almost any time of day. That will have to change. And there is some interesting data to show that it may be amongst the young people that the biggest change is needed. Tegut commissioned a survey that asked, amongst other things, what people do with food that's past the sell-by date. Do they look at it to see if it's still usable, or automatically chuck it away?
Overall, 17% automatically chuck it out, but this figure was only 13% amongst the 50+ group and 22% amongst 14-29s.
Maybe this is one area where the younger generation can't blame the older ones for having messed up the world.
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2 comments:
Thanks for this - it's is one of my hobby-horses.
'Best before' doesn't mean 'Toxic after'.
What happened to the old-fashioned way of telling when food was off, common sense? Sniff it? Look at the colour/texture? Run it under the tap and try again?
I lived for a long while in Africa without a fridge. Everything went off while you watched. Funnily enough, I'm still alive and my immune system is very healthy.
They're a bit better at this stuff here in Germany than in the UK. I think older people who didn't grow up with sell-by dates can give everyone a good example here. My Mum takes no notice of them whatsoever - they're too small to read anyway!
But I do have limits - was offered some jam once that someone's granny had made - all very well, but the granny had died at least 20 years previously!
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