BS: Food Waste

Subject: BS: Food Waste
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 08 May 15 - 10:53 AM

I have just returned from a brief but lovely holiday in America. Enjoyed it immensly, New York is a great city, people are grand and friendly, theatre is great, food choices are amazing. However, why do they insist on giving one so bloody much of it. We try to order one dish and share it but not all places allow this. We often find ourselves eating only half of what is served to us and the rest goes back and into the bin. My observation is that about 30% of the food served is returned uneaten because the portions are so large. I am sure that this is true in a lot of places but it does seem more prevalent in the US.
   Also just read an article on farm and supermarket food waste..incredible that perfectly good food is left in fields because it is not the right shape to fit in a supermarket plastic pack. Anyway, outside of the Ugly Food Movement, what can consumers do to discourage this truly sinful waste when so many are in need ?

Subject: RE: BS: Food Waste
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 May 15 - 11:09 AM

I don't eat out very often these days because food additives play havoc with my GI system. If the lettuce has been shredded chances are the restaurant bought it that way and it was bagged with some kind of sulfate/sulfide (?) to keep it from wilting and turning brown. That stuff is noxious. So I order asking them about fresh ingredients, sources, etc and it gets old. I have to pick off things I forgot to exclude.

When you're travelling you're at a disadvantage, but locally it is common to ask for a takeout container for the remainder of the meal. There are a couple of restaurants that I know if I'm eating there I'm taking home enough for dinner later.

The campus where I work has a program where food waste is composted, but this is uncommon in most food-service venues. There is a great deal of waste. I compost, so any kitchen waste goes into a small bin that when full is taken to the large compost pile. It takes a lot of work to set up composting programs, but they would keep a lot out of landfills and improve soil immensely.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Food Waste
From: Bill D
Date: 08 May 15 - 11:12 AM

My guess is that, because we have access to so much and so many who can afford to buy it, large portions of food is used as a lure to promote restaurants. There are buffet restaurants where big eaters go to stuff down 3-4 plates of stuff.
   We have created a sizable group who can eat those huge portions, and there is one TV program featuring a guy who travels around the country accepting challenges from restaurants to eat their 5 lb. hamburger in an hour..(or 50 chicken wings, or huge steak with potatoes, or 200 oysters,...etc.)

It is simply a bad habit and it carries over to home and other gatherings. I'm not sure what to do, but there ARE organized groups trying to counter the trend. There is also at least one group (in San Francisco, I think) that raids discarded food bins and salvages the stuff that is still good and uses it to feed the poor. This takes work and volunteers, but publicity may get others doing it.

I eat pretty small amounts, and save most leftovers for another meal.

Subject: RE: BS: Food Waste
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 08 May 15 - 11:15 AM

I agree that composting is great but why compost so much food ? Would it not be easier just to serve smaller portions ? One evening we each ordered pasta, we could not possibly have eaten that much food, nor it appears, could anyone else in the restaurant. I would estimate that 40% of the food served went to a landfill. New York does not have a very good composting system.

Subject: RE: BS: Food Waste
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 08 May 15 - 12:07 PM

Waste is a part of market economy, which includes attracting customers. "Generous helpings" sound like generosity and help, even if they are not. However, smaller helpings for the wealthy would not help those in need either. To help others, thorough thinking is the first and most important step.

Of course, waste can be an environmental problem, particularly if non-renewable resources are involved. This kind of waste must be stopped by governments.

Subject: RE: BS: Food Waste
From: Will Fly
Date: 08 May 15 - 12:20 PM

My wife and her friends had just the same huge portion problem when they travelled in the US on several occasions. Some restaurants allowed them to share but others didn't.

However, she did say that, on a few occasions, the waiters recommended one portion between two, as "you Brits don't eat a lot"!

Subject: RE: BS: Food Waste
From: GUEST
Date: 08 May 15 - 12:33 PM

I think of myself as a terrible glutton... until I go to a restaurant, and then I'm appalled by the quantity they serve. And since I can't stand to waste food, it presents a dilemma.

I have the same experience with the fat content of food. When I cook, I worry about the fact that I'm using so much oil, which we're always being told not to do. But then I go to a restaurant, and the food is so greasy I can't eat it.

Subject: RE: BS: Food Waste
From: Bill D
Date: 08 May 15 - 12:41 PM

Oh... we also have a TV program devoted to stories of trying to cure/save various morbidly obese folks. In almost every case overeating of fattening foods is involved. The cure is invariably surgery to reduce the amount they eat. Some of the folk who weigh 500-800 lbs are catered to by relatives who weigh 250-400 lbs and ought to be seeking medical help themselves.
It is true that some metabolisms store food easily as fat, but still, large portions are the culprits.

I guess I am fortunate that I don't gain weight easily.... my brother has the opposite problem, and MUST limit his intake.

Subject: RE: BS: Food Waste
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 08 May 15 - 12:56 PM

Many years ago, as a student , I spent my summers working in kitchens. It was considered a disgrace if uneaten food came back to the kitchen. Would there not be more profit for owners if portions were even slightly reduced ? I believe it has more to do with culture and long standing habits than it does with marketing. I could be wrong but I don't see that throwing away good food in dining rooms or on farms, or in supermarkets can be profitable. There is a thing called "The Ugly Food Movement" that is trying to get food to consumers in spite of it not meeting the retailers idea of perfection.
Perhaps restaurants should offer a variety of portion sizes and let diners decide how much to order. I don't know what the answer is but it seems an awful thing that so much good food is wasted.

Subject: RE: BS: Food Waste
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 08 May 15 - 01:36 PM

HiLo, I am not sure about restaurants, but for farmers, traders, and retailers, destroying perfectly edible food for economical reasons is absolutely normal.

Helping the poor, the obese, the poisoned, and the environment are important goals. Public discussion must start from the problems, not from the amount of wasted food.

If you want healthy food in restaurants, the best idea is study the menus of more than one beforehand.

Subject: RE: BS: Food Waste
From: Rapparee
Date: 08 May 15 - 01:43 PM

When we go out we often make a meal from the appetizers. Sometimes I have a SMALL pizza or flatbread. We simply don't order something which we a certain is more than we can eat, and around here it's quite common to take uneaten portions home. In fact, all of the restaurants (as far as I know) also have take-out service and once it's in your grasp they can't tell you how to divide it...I've seen people sharing in a park in the summer.

Of course, we don't have many five-stars restaurants, but they do supply what we CAN eat. Sometimes that's from the "Senior" or "Lighter" menu.

We also specify what we DON'T want: iceberg lettuce, for example. Sometimes we're looked on as heretics, but we are doing the paying and they can provide what we ask for.

Oh, yes -- the Farmers' Market starts tomorrow. Grass fed beef and lamb, locally butchered; berries grown 40 miles away and brought in fresh, various local lettuces and other vegetables, local honey, local apples and cider, lots of good things!

Cooking at home is an entirely different story, of course.

Subject: RE: BS: Food Waste
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 08 May 15 - 02:03 PM

Blimey. What kind of restaurants are you lot going to? Even a half-decent restaurant here serves portions that allow you to have a starter, a main course and, if desired, a dessert without bloating you. It's part of the skill of preparing and serving food. I do most of the cooking in our house and if I served Mrs Steve a too-large portion she'd be on me like a ton of bricks. It simply isn't done to whack excessive amounts of anything on someone's plate. It's pointless and it's positively off-putting. Ask yourselves if you've got the eateries you deserve. Now back to preparing my high-fat risotto...

Subject: RE: BS: Food Waste
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 08 May 15 - 02:32 PM

I have a friend who habitually brings a Tupperware container when she goes to a restaurant, so she can take home about half of her meal. Most people would just accept the styrofoam box offered by the restaurant, but Tupperware makes a tighter seal, and she can safely put it in her purse.

I once watched a supermarket employee stocking the shelves with bananas. As he took them out of the box, he would occasionally find a single banana, not attached to any others. He threw these into another box, to be taken away. He had accumulated several. I don't know what he was going to do with them. This must happen a lot, because I don't recall ever seeing a single unattached banana on the shelf. Do people ever buy just one banana?

Subject: RE: BS: Food Waste
From: olddude
Date: 08 May 15 - 03:07 PM

Terribly wasteful our country is
I always have to get a take home container became the portions are so large. Forget appetizers, if I ordered one I would not finish a quarter of my dinner. I don't know when this all started but when I was a kid and my mom worked at a restaurant, the plate sizes were generally what you do at home. Today you can feed three people and so much is tossed. What a sin

Subject: RE: BS: Food Waste
From: GUEST
Date: 08 May 15 - 04:34 PM

I wonder if in Britain we still have the influence of those who had over ten years of rationing during WW2.

Following on from what Steve Shaw said, I think the restaurant that makes most from me is the one that can leave me with space for a third course.

Subject: RE: BS: Food Waste
From: GUEST
Date: 08 May 15 - 06:40 PM

I once worked as a waiter at a restaurant that specialized in prime rib. They had 3 sizes. I don't remember what the other two were, but the largest one was 32 oz. That's obscene. 5 oz is a healthy portion of meat. But it was a matter of pride for the men to order the 32 oz cut and try to finish it all. Of course, in order to do that they didn't touch the baked potato or salad.

Subject: RE: BS: Food Waste
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 08 May 15 - 07:15 PM

The only time I was ever confronted with a huge portion was in a little pizzeria in a back street in Naples, just up from the Duomo. I'd seen in an Italian cookery book that, once in one's life, one ought to go to Napoli and endure a pizza fritta. So here was my chance. I knew as soon I'd ordered the damn thing that there a challenge on. The look in the waiter's eye was a combination of scepticism and dare. When it arrived I could scarcely believe it. It was a pizza that had been folded over, was six inches thick in the middle, eighteen inches long - and deep fried. I couldn't help noticing the smug expression on the waiter's face as he slapped the thing down in front of me.   Eat that if you can, Inglese, he seemed to hint. But, begod, I did it. I was too stuffed to do anything else that day, but at least I'd found martyrdom.

Subject: RE: BS: Food Waste
From: Bill D
Date: 08 May 15 - 08:07 PM

Many years ago, a pizza place in my home town had 3 sizes of pizza. They also had a sign that said "Large size free if one person can eat it all." For several years, no one did.... then a small fireman came in a did it... and ate 2 extra pieces.

They put his picture up.... and took down the sign. The owner said he didn't want anyone hurting his self trying to beat the record. Too bad no one follows that example.

Subject: RE: BS: Food Waste
From: Joe_F
Date: 08 May 15 - 08:25 PM

In ancient times (ca. 1960) there was a famous delicatessen in Brookline, MA, called Jack & Marion's. It specialty was sandwiches a couple of inches thick & as big across as a dinner plate. The usual thing, of course, was for the people at a table to split it; but if you (singular) ate a whole one, you not only got it free, but your name went up on a permanent board labeled "Fressers' Fraternity". I never saw it done.

Subject: RE: BS: Food Waste
From: Rapparee
Date: 08 May 15 - 09:40 PM

When I was setting tombstones, and when I was in the Infantry, I ate BIG meals. I did the same during the winter in Korea. But then I was working it off or needed calories just to stay warm.

But that was then and this is now. I get a kick out of restaurants which offer a "Ranch Hand Breakfast" or something of the sort. The ranchers and farmers I know generally have a doughnut and coffee for breakfast, if they can free up the time for that.

Most people today don't need 3,000 calorie meals (yes, there are times when that is appropriate) or even 3,000 calorie days. But I sort of suspect that the US will be cutting back, possibly way back, on food intake. The California drought, the lack of water for potatoes in Idaho, the past winter when ranchers in Montana and North Dakota had to kill the beef they were keeping to restock the ranges come spring, the droughts in the Middle West, are all going to drive food prices through the roof. 85% lean ground beef, the lowest grade generally available, is currently USD 15.00 per pound (about GBP 9.71, 13.50 euros), and I'm not certain that it's from the US. In March, 2014, it was about USD 3.70 per pound.

It's called, "I'll have the appetizer as my entree" and the wait staff seems to be used to it.

Subject: RE: BS: Food Waste
From: mg
Date: 08 May 15 - 09:45 PM

Just put at least the healthier remains in a bag and give to a homeless person.

Subject: RE: BS: Food Waste
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 08 May 15 - 09:47 PM

Isn't the entree (to start) the start of meal followed by a main course. I do see what you mean by food prices though. I wonder if peoPle will change because of it?

Subject: RE: BS: Food Waste
From: Bill D
Date: 08 May 15 - 10:24 PM

For those who miss the point of "Fressers' Fraternity" in Joe_F's post.

In German, if I remember correctly, humans & animals have different verbs to refer to eating.

For men, it is 'essen', for animals it is 'fressen'

ahhh.. to be sure, I googled it.

" In German, fressen and essen both mean "to eat," but fressen is used for animals. In connection with people, fressen is considered derogatory."

Subject: RE: BS: Food Waste
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 May 15 - 10:41 PM

I think a homeless person would enjoy the less healthy part of the meal also, Mary. :)

There is a Lebanese restaurant I go to for lunch that offers small sandwich sized meals (gyros, etc) and also dinner plates with lots of meat, rice, etc. The rule of thumb is that if you're getting the larger meal half of it goes home for dinner. It's pretty much what they expect.

I use what are considered "lunch plates" all of the time here, because dinner plates are very large and filling one of those means you have too much food in front of you. The lunch plates are a couple of inches smaller in diameter. Also, plating a meal in the kitchen and serving that way versus putting the whole casserole or pot or whatever on the table means people are less likely to overeat.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Food Waste
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 08 May 15 - 10:53 PM

We do not eat large portions home. However, when traveling it is hard tm control the amount of food served and you can't take leftovers with you. So a lot gets tossed out. I don, how that helping businesses or consumers .

Subject: RE: BS: Food Waste
From: Janie
Date: 08 May 15 - 11:09 PM

I don't eat out much. Nor do I eat in much these days either. Little time, so usually eat one meal a day or snack on fruit and veggies with enough cheese for some protein in the morning and late at night. If I do eat out, I generally take home enough to feed me for another day or so.

My Mother, sister and I, all single women living alone 300+ miles from one another often lament at how much food, especially fresh produce, that we end up tossing out because we could not eat it all before it started to rot. Financially, it is cheaper to buy the smallest quantity available in the produce section and toss or compost what goes rotten after a week or two before we can consume it all than to to hit a salad bar every evening. And while I do enjoy cooking, I am one of those who rarely will cook for myself alone. So I go through periods of surviving on microwaved meals such as 'Lean Cuisine,' or late night snacks of crackers, cheese and carrot sticks, and slices of avocado. (carrots keep a long time.)

For single people and even for just 2 person adult households with very busy schedules, it is hard to affordably buy fresh produce and veggies in small enough quantities to not end up wasting a huge amount of food. At least that is the case in my neck of the woods. May be different in other places.

Subject: RE: BS: Food Waste
From: Rapparee
Date: 09 May 15 - 10:09 AM

The fresh produce section in our supermarkets are arranged so that you CAN take part of a head of broccoli or spinach or whatever. Hands of bananas can be broken up into a smaller bunch; potatoes, tomatoes, apples, and other things can be purchased singly as it seems that everything is sold by the pound.

We buy frozen veggies and fruits that are "flash frozen" with minimum processing. After the bag is opened as much air as possible is squeezed out and it is put into a Ziploc bag and air squeezed from that before it is all returned to the freezer.

"Hi, welcome to Burger King, where you can have it your way!"
"I'd like a triple pounder, but please hold the cheese, the meat, the bun, the ketchup, the mustard, the special sauce, the bacon, and the lettuce."
"Sir, that leaves only four slices of pickle!"
"Oh, hold them too. I don't like pickles."
"Ah, sir? Sir?"

Subject: RE: BS: Food Waste
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 09 May 15 - 11:51 AM

Things are a bit different in Australia. Travellers to America have been commenting on the extra large portions for years (my sister & brother in law regularly shared an entree plate when they lived in California in 1989) but we still have a lot of waste here.

Visit any food hall or cafe at lunchtime & see wasted food on plates, same with restaurants at night. Watch supermarket/fruit market employees pulling our bruised items & tossing them out. Check out the skips & dumpsters behind shops & shopping centres all across Australia ...

I have friends who dumpster dive, even tho they have a very good income, they hate waste & when the local deli throws out today's bread they grab it. Dunno why the deli does not contact one of the food rescue organisations that have been around for the last 10 years & find a home for it.

OzHarvest rescuing surplus food since 2004 OzHarvest is the first perishable food rescue organisation in Australia collecting quality excess food from commercial outlets and delivering it, direct and free of charge, to 600 charities providing much needed assistance to vulnerable men, women and children across Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Gold Coast, Melbourne, Newcastle and Perth.
OzHarvest is the only food rescue organisation in Australia collecting surplus food from all types of food providers including fruit and vegetable markets, supermarkets, hotels, wholesalers, farmers, stadiums, corporate events, catering companies, shopping centres, delis, cafes, restaurants, film and TV shoots and boardrooms.

Food rescue group OzHarvest is opening a cafe serving leftovers

Wikipedia on food rescue

World Food Day

Several months back I realised there is a huge composting facility in the Community Centre which I visit weekly, so now I have a home for my fruit & vegetable peelings etc.

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: Food Waste
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 09 May 15 - 11:58 AM

Why do they provide so much food in the USA? Because they revel in being fat, very very fat!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Food Waste
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 09 May 15 - 12:11 PM

Why?

Because a bigger meal with a higher price generates for revenue for the restaurant and a nicer tip for the server. If you want to take some home and enjoy it the next day, that's up to you.

It's funny how you guys smell greed in every move by a corporation, but you can't figure out that the business down the block needs to take money in to survive.

Subject: RE: BS: Food Waste
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 09 May 15 - 05:39 PM

Shit, pig out, or put the rest in a doggy bag to go...
Jeez.

GfS

Subject: RE: BS: Food Waste
From: GUEST,Peter from seven stars link
Date: 10 May 15 - 03:47 PM

The ozharvest sounds a great idea, Sandra . Pity something like that is,nt done more elsewhere. I must confess that when...not that often...we go out to eat, that I feel cheated if there is only a small portion. Sometimes I think, why is there only a teaspoon of peas only with the meal !. I like the buffet style restaurants, where you eat as much as you want so there is no need for personal wastage......but I suspect that there will still be wastage at the end of the day though.

Subject: RE: BS: Food Waste
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 10 May 15 - 07:18 PM

I've also seen buffet serving plates piled onto each other & removed. I'm guessing the contents of the large serving platters went into the bins, too. It took legislation to allow restaurants & cafes to give their untouched food to OzHarvest & similar organisations.

bloke I know works in the kitchen of an exclusive boy's school & often brings in left over sandwiches, pancakes & more. Each table in the dining room gets large jugs of milk & juice which are also wasted as the kitchen staff can't take it all home. They are probably not allowed to remove unused food & drinks.

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: Food Waste
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 10 May 15 - 07:33 PM

The food is not thrown to garbage.

Many folk make a fine feast upon that which you do not eat.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Dumpster Diving is a refined art with a high skill of refined bartering.

Subject: RE: BS: Food Waste
From: BobL
Date: 11 May 15 - 03:14 AM

I too dislike unfeasibly large helpings - but most of the cost is in wages & overheads, which don't change with bigger portions, so presumably it makes business sense to pander to the heaviest eaters. You don't get this in a posh restaurant of course, as the waiter/waitress will serve you as much or as little as you want.

Incidentally, once upon a time waste food was recycled as pig feed - is this still the case, or was it scuppered by the possibility of Mad Pig Disease?

Subject: RE: BS: Food Waste
From: GUEST
Date: 11 May 15 - 09:11 AM

[quote]
Incidentally, once upon a time waste food was recycled as pig feed - is this still the case, or was it scuppered by the possibility of Mad Pig Disease?
[/quote]
Thought to be a factor in spreading Foot and Mouth. Banned in the UK in 2001 and extended to the rest of the EU in 2003.

Subject: RE: BS: Food Waste
From: GUEST
Date: 11 May 15 - 01:24 PM

I was just watching The Good Lie and was reminded that supermarkets throw out large quantities of groceries each day, and they lock their dumpsters because so many people would otherwise go in and take the food. Thirty years ago a friend of mine used to dumpster dive at the local supermarket, and he got much more than he could use so he was always going around trying to find people to give it to.

In the movie, one of the Sudanese refugees is chewed out by his boss for giving some of the groceries to a homeless person who's trying to get into the dumpster. The boss says,
"What the hell do you think you're doing?"
He answers,
"It is a sin not to give to those in need."
"Says who?"
"Jeremiah."
"And who's that?"
He thinks about it, then takes off his apron and gives it to his boss, quitting his job, and then says,
"Me. My name is Jeremiah."