Entire Site About Wasted Food-Sad

**Jskell911** · 04-29-2008, 07:47 PM

Here is a site that is part blog, part journalism devoted to the research of wasted food in America and the fact that the number of those who cannpt afford decent food grows. I thought it would make interesting reasing here:

http://www.wastedfood.com/about/

**Dad_of_4** · 04-29-2008, 08:38 PM

I find the statistic that the US wastes 40% of our food. I resturant would not be able to stay in business if it wasted even 20% of it's food. I've worked is several resturants and we maybe threw out 5%. Most resturants have it down to a science on how much to order and when. As far as individuals go, we hardly waste anything. If there are any leftover they are lunch the next day. I would like to know where he gets this statistic.

**Jskell911** · 04-29-2008, 09:01 PM

I got the impression it wasn't individuals per se, but the amount " produced for consumption" led me to believe farming, grocery, etc were all included.

I'm not too sure I buy 40% but I do know there is just way too much waste.

**Sonnenwende** · 04-30-2008, 06:42 AM

Originally Posted by Dad_of_4

I find the statistic that the US wastes 40% of our food. I resturant would not be able to stay in business if it wasted even 20% of it's food. I've worked is several resturants and we maybe threw out 5%. Most resturants have it down to a science on how much to order and when. As far as individuals go, we hardly waste anything. If there are any leftover they are lunch the next day. I would like to know where he gets this statistic.

You have apparently never worked in food service.

When I worked at a Pizza Hut kiosk, health regulations dictated that we sell a pizza in 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, it had to go in the trash. I am not kidding. Since you could never really predict rushes, a certain number were always standing ready. A lot ended up in the trash, though in reality, they went home with the illegals they hired after they collected them from the trash (also a violation). My brother reported similar practices at Burger King. There is a lot of wastage in the food service industry. I am not sure it is 40%, but it is a significant percentage.

**Dad_of_4** · 04-30-2008, 09:12 AM

Originally Posted by Sonnenwende

You have apparently never worked in food service.

When I worked at a Pizza Hut kiosk, health regulations dictated that we sell a pizza in 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, it had to go in the trash. I am not kidding. Since you could never really predict rushes, a certain number were always standing ready. A lot ended up in the trash, though in reality, they went home with the illegals they hired after they collected them from the trash (also a violation). My brother reported similar practices at Burger King. There is a lot of wastage in the food service industry. I am not sure it is 40%, but it is a significant percentage.

I've worked at Mc Donalds, Subway, several local burger joints, delivering pizza, a bus boy at a diner, and in the galley in the Navy. Every where I worked (except the Navy) had the same thing about throwing away cooked food after 20 min. While it may seem like alot of food at the end of the day, as a percentage of the total food produced it was not that much.

**YankeeMom** · 04-30-2008, 09:24 AM

Originally Posted by Sonnenwende

You have apparently never worked in food service.

When I worked at a Pizza Hut kiosk, health regulations dictated that we sell a pizza in 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, it had to go in the trash. I am not kidding. Since you could never really predict rushes, a certain number were always standing ready. A lot ended up in the trash, though in reality, they went home with the illegals they hired after they collected them from the trash (also a violation). My brother reported similar practices at Burger King. There is a lot of wastage in the food service industry. I am not sure it is 40%, but it is a significant percentage.

I agree. I have worked at several restaurants (Pizza Hut, Denny's Ruby Tuesdays, Golden Corral) and there is a HUGE amount of waste.

I know at Pizza Hut, at the end of the night dozens of pizzas were "burned off" (cooked and then thrown away) because they weren't used that night and could not be used for the next day. We employees were not allowed to take them home unless we bought them

At Ruby Tuesday it wasn't nearly as wasteful but there was still a large amount of food that had to be thrown away. Every shift (6-8hours) the salad bar is completely emptied and everything is thrown away. It doesn't matter how full containers are or even if they were just put out 15 minutes before the end of the shift.

And again, employees were not allowed to take food home unless they bought it.

If it's not 40% of waste, it's pretty darned close.

**C@rol** · 04-30-2008, 09:47 AM

Great blog and informative posts.

**ShawnaRae** · 04-30-2008, 04:08 PM

The waste adds up. I once worked with a group who prepared healthy meals for the hungry and homeless. Sometimes we could get grocery stores to give us boxes of produce they were going to throw out. Perfectly good food for the most part. Usually we were told they weren't allowed to give it away. A lot of these places put padlocks on their dumpsters. This was about 10 years ago. Any food waste is deplorable.