Food waste and food distribution

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ransos
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Re: Food waste and food distribution

Post by ransos » 5 years ago

Greg wrote:
5 years ago
I'd rather spend another pound to keep some self respect.
It's good to have ambitions.
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Greg
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Re: Food waste and food distribution

Post by Greg » 5 years ago

ransos wrote:
5 years ago
It's good to have ambitions.
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Re: Food waste and food distribution

Post by Regulator » 5 years ago

I will occasionally yellow sticker but it tends to be stuff I shouldn’t be eating that’s on offer.

That said, I did once get a bottle of rather nice gin on the Waitrose equivalent of a yellow sticker.... 👍
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Sonic Budgie
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Re: Food waste and food distribution

Post by Sonic Budgie » 5 years ago

Joan wrote:
5 years ago
Many years ago and far away, back when supermarkets closed at 5pm on Saturday and didn't open again until Monday...

I was in a supermarket late on a summer Saturday, and I noticed a cluster of Italian nonnas hanging around the vegie department. I soon found out what they were waiting for. The supermarket was marking down Roma tomatoes, and these ladies were taking them home by the crate to to make tomato sauce. My school friends told me about the production lines of peeling, chopping and cooking, so I sympathised that all their grandchildren were going to spend their Sundays industriously, and the pantries would be full by Monday.

I think "Yellow stickering" is great. If you don't want to buy it, then don't. But I love picking up bargains, particularly veggies. Excepting leavy greens, they typically have a week of life left in them after their sell by days, and if they start to turn, it's time for a batch of veggie curry.

Yellow stickered sushi is an abomination and should not exist.


I'd rather see it sold, just like any other vegetable because - oh, how can I put it? -


How did we get their idea that vegetables should be identical,and perfect? I really miss wild field mushrooms. Big, misshapen and full of flavour. If you cooked them long enough they would melt into a sauce. The closest I can find is the large portobello, which is close but not nearly as good.

</rant>
I'm not sure if I'm misunderstanding you, or if you're misunderstanding me, or if it's neither.
I wasn't saying that they should give veg away that is "misshapen" nor do I think it should be cheaper because it doesn't conform to some ideal foisted on us by the supermarkets, it should be sold as veg, just veg. It should be mixed in with all the rest of the veggies, enough of this othering. My objection is to it being called anything other than what it is, veg, or fruit of course, let's not forget our friends the fruit. It shouldn't be marketed as less than the rest because it did not have the good fortune to blessed with the good genes of it's brothers and sisters.
I have no objection to yellow stickering, I'm rather partial to picking up a bargain myself, although I certainly don't get involved in the scrum. It makes good sense for the supermarkets and can be a bonus for shoppers. However, when the price gets to the point where they are practically giving the stuff away I would rather they did just that.
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LowlifeDes
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Re: Food waste and food distribution

Post by LowlifeDes » 5 years ago

Don't forget that the supermarket collection points are also free advertising
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Rutabaga
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Re: Food waste and food distribution

Post by Rutabaga » 5 years ago

This is shockingly wasteful - people in the UK are throwing away 720 million eggs a year unnecessarily.
https://www.theguardian.com/food/2019/a ... date-fears

I've often kept eggs way over the best-by date, and have never in my life cracked an egg to find it had gone bad. OK, older eggs might not be so great as a breakfast boiled egg, but they are fine for all sorts of other uses.

In common with many others, it seems, I didn't know that you can freeze eggs. The link in the article doesn't say how - in their shells or cracked into a container? Not that it affects me, as I don't have a freezer.
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Rocky
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Re: Food waste and food distribution

Post by Rocky » 5 years ago

Yes, I read that - what a waste of food. I didn't know about the 'cold water test' for telling if an egg is off (if they float, don't eat them) but I never look at the sell by dates and can't ever remember having a bad egg.
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The Real Ravenhurst
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Re: Food waste and food distribution

Post by The Real Ravenhurst » 5 years ago

I thought the received wisdom was that whites freeze well but yolks don't? Never tried, though.

When you do crack a bad egg into a pan, you will remember it, and won't be able even to look at any kind of egg for days. I quite often drop eggs in water, not so much to see if they are bad but to choose one for a particular cooking method (you want a bit of air under the membrane if you're intending to peel a boiled egg).
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Sonic Budgie
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Re: Food waste and food distribution

Post by Sonic Budgie » 5 years ago

I had the misfortune of breaking a bad 'un into my poached eggs pan a couple of weeks ago [vomitsmilie] I've never done the water test, I do check the dates on the ones I'm doing that kind of thing with, I prefer a fried egg that holds itself together rather than spreading across the whole pan, but I seem to remember it was unreadable on this particular one. My wife informed me that I should always break them into a bowl first, I've managed nearly 50 years without the extra step in the process though. Anyway, sorry, straying into cooking tips, Rocky will be complaining to the Mods again if it gets any more cookery based.
Last edited by Sonic Budgie on Wed Apr 10, 2019 10:05 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Rocky
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Re: Food waste and food distribution

Post by Rocky » 5 years ago

Sonic Budgie wrote:
5 years ago
I had the misfortune of breaking a bad 'un into my poached eggs pan a couple of weeks ago [vomitsmilie] I've never done the water test, I do check the dates on the ones I'm doing that kind of thing with, I prefer a fired egg that holds itself together rather than spreading across the whole pan, but I seem to remember it was unreadable on this particular one. My wife informed me that I should always break them into a bowl first, I've managed nearly 50 years without the extra step in the process though. Anyway, sorry, straying into cooking tips, Rocky will be complaining to the Mods again if it gets any more cookery based.
Mods!! Too much cookery stuff on here!! Delete it please....protect us from the foodies
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Rutabaga
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Re: Food waste and food distribution

Post by Rutabaga » 5 years ago

Hang on, this IS about food waste - if you break a bad egg into a bowl of cake mix you waste it. I think the old-fashioned routine of breaking an egg into a cup first has faded out for the very reason that people don't see bad eggs any more. When our parents' generation were young, bad eggs were much more common. Now they're rare, but people throw eggs away because the artificial date stamp makes them suspicious of perfectly good food. It's mad.
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Re: Food waste and food distribution

Post by Iris » 5 years ago

I've seen (and smelt) a bad egg a couple of times, and have never thrown an egg away. After each experience I started breaking eggs into a bowl, but it didn't last long. I've never checked the best-before date on an egg.
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Re: Food waste and food distribution

Post by Regulator » 5 years ago

Eggs don’t last long in our house... but if they get beyond the ‘Use By’ date (once in a blue moon) they get the water test.
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Joan
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Re: Food waste and food distribution

Post by Joan » 5 years ago

I wasn't going to post in this thread again because I keep breaking the unwritten law, but I will risk it.

I don't think I have ever checked the use by date on eggs (except when actually buying them in an effort to get the freshest), and I have never broken eggs into a cup. So far I have gotten away with this (never cracked a bad egg) so I won't change. I will use a cup if I am separating egg whites and the eggs aren't really fresh, because old yolks are much more likely to break, destroying any chance of a meringue. Old whites don't make such a good meringue either, but with an electric mixer you can - ahem - power through that.

The woman who didn't teach me to break them into a cup was taught by a woman who raised eight children during the depression, while the family farm driven out of business; and who knew enough about baking that she would open the oven door on the wood fired stove and say "that's a sponge oven" and bake a sponge. So if Nanna could tell a moderate oven just by feeling it on her face, I am going to stick with her egg breaking technique.
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Joan
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Re: Food waste and food distribution

Post by Joan » 5 years ago

Braving posting to this thread again. Will try not to mention FOOD BANKS. Oh, oops!

Two relevant things (I believe, please hit "!" if I am breaking the unwritten rules),
  1. I have just eaten an egg with "Display until" of 2/March and "Best before" 9/March. It was a tasty treat. Note to coroner: I had just eaten 2 month old egg before I died
  2. Waitrose's wonky veg. I am not sure what is least wonky here. The perfectly standard peppers, or the fact that taking a bag of randomly selected vegetables as opposed to taking exactly what you want, saves you (I am not kidding) 8p/3£
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