
Trader Joe's Ex-President To Turn Expired Food Into Cheap Meals - mdturnerphys
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/09/21/222082247/trader-joes-ex-president-to-turn-expired-food-into-cheap-meals
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jjoe
_With the exception of infant formula, the laws that the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) administers do not preclude the sale of food that is past
the expiration date indicated on the label. FDA does not require food firms to
place "expired by", "use by" or "best before" dates on food products. This
information is entirely at the discretion of the manufacturer.

A principle of U.S. food law is that foods in U.S. commerce must be wholesome
and fit for consumption. A "best by", "use by" or expiration date does not
relieve a firm from this obligation. A product that is dangerous to consumers
would be subject to potential action by FDA to remove it from commerce
regardless of any date printed on a label._

Source:
[http://www.fda.gov/aboutfda/transparency/basics/ucm210073.ht...](http://www.fda.gov/aboutfda/transparency/basics/ucm210073.htm)

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stephengillie
This is news to me. Having worked for Safeway for many years, we held to those
dates religiously.

~~~
MichaelApproved
It's like that was because it wouldn't be good to have customers see "expired"
food on your shelves. As a customer, I wouldn't buy food which has gone past
the expiration date. Sure, it could be fine to consume but I'd rather purchase
food on that's well ahead of the expiration date. Especially since I may not
cook/eat the food until a day or so later.

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pedalpete
I think what most of the comments here seem to be missing is that (what I
think is being said) he is takin on the fast food market in under-privileged
areas where finding healthy food is a challenge. I think this is the case
because the interview says they will cook the food for the patrons, and that
he'll be serving the inner city areas not currently served.

Many of the people living in the area dine on fast food because it is
incredibly cheap. "Real" food a"can't compete at this price. However, maybe
post sell by date foods can.

The challenge is likely to be one of marketing, as it won't be difficult for
the fast food chains to label the newcomer as selling rotten food.

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billybob255
Not to downplay the good work he's doing, but both of those things (selling
expired food and giving it away) are both pretty common. There are discount
stores who specialize in expired food.

~~~
fragsworth
Yeah, it's nothing too novel. It sounds to me like he wants to take over a
chunk of that market, by providing a large-scale solution that competes with
all the small vendors. This article is mostly a promotional piece.

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kunai
It's not really "expired" food. The sell-by date is just an indicator of when
the item begins to go slightly stale. In the case of foodstuffs like fruit and
milk, there are expiry dates and it's best _NOT_ to eat past that expiry date.

~~~
dchest
Expired milk can be used to make pancakes! See also
[http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/dont-be-so-quick-to-
throw-o...](http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/dont-be-so-quick-to-throw-out-
expired-milk.htm)

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eyeareque
It is great to see an entrepreneur tackling an issue that will benefit the
world (in a huge way) vs tackling an issue that will make someone build wealth
for themselves.

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detrino
I worked at TJ's as a teenager and they gave away the expired bread to a
homeless shelter.

~~~
briannickel
I've definitely seen distinctly TJ products at food banks. Meat, canned goods,
etc.

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smsm42
I've always wondered where the products go when they are past their expiry
date. They don't suddenly go bad at the second expiry date passes... Are they
just thrown out? Sold to discount stores? Sent to local homeless shelter? It
it legal to give expired products to anyone? Does it expose one to liability?

~~~
keithpeter
'Sell by' dates are earlier than when fresh produce can be expected to become
bad. Cooks can examine the fresh produce and decide if they should cook it or
not. Tinned or dry goods might be harder to judge. I imagine the liability
drops down to the person preparing food in a shelter or soup kitchen.

UK: many shops sell off food at half or third price when it hits sell-by. They
put it in bins/special fridge areas and they have yellow 'BUY NOW' stickers
on, and some products have a warning like 'use today'.

I know of cafes that give away their expired sandwiches _on the day and hour_
of expiry. So when given away, it was fine.

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septerr
I have always felt bad about fresh produce going to waste in my fridge.Between
my buying the produce and it going bad, there is always a point where I know I
am not going to be able to use this stuff and in 2-3 days it will be unusable.
I have looked for services in my area where I could take these items to.
Something like soup kitchens who can then incorporate them into their cooking.
But all the organizations I found took only canned goods and prepared food
from large scale organizations like restaurants.

I had even thought it would be a great program for a charity register homes
that are willing to give away soon-to-go-bad food. Then have volunteers stop
by these homes on a predetermined schedule (once a week or so) to stop by and
collect anything that the home might want to donate.

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marincounty
I had a crazy friend who ate for years out of Trader Joe's garbage cans. One
day a cops were called. After, that he still went back, but a lock was put on
the garbage.

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graue
There's nothing crazy about that. I've known lots of people who dumpster-dive.
A college roommate of mine lived on nothing but free and dumpster-dived food
for several months when he was broke. Even when he had money he liked to do it
and would bring back vegetables to share. One time we feasted for weeks on a
huge grocery bag full of (normally expensive) avocados, eating around the bad
spots... at least ¾ of it was good.

If you think it's crazy, I'm gonna guess your broke college-kid days (if you
had them) are long behind you. :)

~~~
rdtsc
But I guess dumpster is still in private property and owners can still kick
anyone out of the dumpster area for trespassing. Cops could be called for that
instead of say for "theft"

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_lex
I HATE this. I previously shopped at Trader Joe's with confidence - I knew I
wasn't being gouged on price, so I generally ignored prices. I knew the food
was good, so I could turn my brain off and just buy whatever I fancied.
However, maybe 7 months ago, I started to notice that I was buying expired or
nearly expired things from Trader Joes - bread that would go bad the next day
(got mouldy), cheese with mold, etc. It was super irritating, and I would
never remember to return those things so I'd wind up eating the cost.

I eventually realized that for perishable goods, they put the new stuff in the
back of the shelves, so now I just head for the back of the shelf when I need
to buy perishables there. This sucks for me, since buying at TJs used to be a
stress-free experience, and now I check the 'use-by' dates on everything.

I actually flirted with shopping at Walmart (the one on San Antonio), but even
though the prices are lower, the checkout lines are crazy at peak times, which
is when I shop.

I also checked out Safeway, but they do a pricing technique that I call "Price
Warfare". They randomly advertise products on heavy discount, and get you to
incorporate those products as defaults in your shopping habits, then they
switch their discounts to other products. This means that I've wound up paying
$7 for basic icecream (which usually costs around $3:50). They also like to
prominently display expensive items and hide their cheaper substitutes. This
is most visible in their produce section - if you go in looking for grapes and
without your senses about you, you'll pick up organic grapes by default. It
also means that shopping at Safeway is mentally exhausting, since I've got to
recalculate the 'best' prices on everything I buy every time I go there - so I
avoid it now. <end rant>

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mansam
> I eventually realized that for perishable goods, they put the new stuff in
> the back of the shelves, so now I just head for the back of the shelf when I
> need to buy perishables there. This sucks for me, since buying at TJs used
> to be a stress-free experience, and now I check the 'use-by' dates on
> everything.

I just wanted to mention that this is a standard practice called rotation.
After all, putting new product in front would result in wastage of the older
product. Products are supposed to be culled on their sell-by (not expiration)
date, and it's unfortunate that you got some bad groceries, but they didn't do
anything unusual or shady.

Similarly, Safeway's practices are fairly standard amongst grocery stores,
though it's a little annoying. Best to follow the sale circulars and keep your
wits about you.

~~~
yareally
Yep, just look at milk. The newer milk is always in the back. If the
expiration dates are too short and you won't be able to drink it in time, just
look for ones towards the back and get those instead. I generally don't care
though as long as the expiration isn't within a week.

~~~
refurb
Hackers new tip: Buy lactose-free milk and it will stay good for much longer
than regular milk.

I don't consume a lot of milk, and I was getting tired of buying a half-gallon
and having go bad two weeks later after I had only consumed 1/4 of it.

Lactose-free milk stay good for a long-time. Most of the time when I check,
the best-before date is at least 6 weeks into the future. I've never had the
milk go bad even if I've had it for 8 weeks. I'm not lactose intolerant BTW.

The only drawback is that the milk definitely tastes sweeter than regular
milk. I'm used to it by now, but I'm sure some people would find it
disagreeable.

I'm not sure why it lasts so long, even though there is no lactose in it,
there is plenty of other sugars in it. Lactose-free milk is made by using
enzymes to split the lactose into galactose and glucose. It tastes sweeter
because both of the sugars have a higher perceived sweetness than lactose on a
weight basis.

~~~
silencio
It's because lactose-free milk (or at least the Lactaid brand that I see my
roommate drink) is treated at higher temperatures. You can find regular milk
that has gone through the same treatment labeled as UHT or ultra-pasteurized,
like the Horizon Organic brand and another I've seen at Costco as shelf stable
juicebox form factor milk drinks (UHT coincidentally removes the refrigeration
requirement too if stored in an appropriate container).

No need to pay extra for the lactose-free variant if you don't really need it
and the plain UHT-treated milk is cheaper :)

~~~
jlgreco
Wouldn't the benefits of ultra-pasteurization go out the window once you open
the package, thereby contaminating the milk?

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venomsnake
There was this Mythbusters episode (pyramids preserving foods) where they
sliced an apple in half. The one half rotted fairly quickly at room
temperature the other was fine.

Brief investigation showed that there was difference in the initial
contamination of the two halves and the results observed.

Modern kitchen and fridge are fairly clean places unless you are a movie
bachelor. So opening a milk bottle and pouring a glass won't contaminate too
much. And at 4 degrees there is not much breeding activity in bacteria anyway.

~~~
makomk
Actually, they didn't appear to investigate the cause at all - they just
assumed one cut surface must have been contaminated more than the other and
changed the experiment to remove the cut surface altogether. Since the mold on
the non-pyramid apple only survived on the cut surface, not cutting the apples
made sure no mold grew on any of them, and all bar one of the apples (the one
from the cube) was perfectly preserved at the end of the experiment.

Was kind of annoying actually; the Mythbusters got so pissed off that their
experiment appeared to show pyramids working that they set up their next test
in such a way it'd give the same result regardless of whether pyramids or
contamination had caused one apple to rot faster before, then held it up as
proof pyramids were bunk. While it's really unlikely pyramids can magically
preserve food, they should still have been honest and fair in their testing.

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avty
Soylent Green will help more.

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bsullivan01
This will go on until an adorable child dies and everyone--even the aunt that
has never seen the child--sues

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S_A_P
I'm reminded of an experience I had at a deli. I ordered matzo ball soup. The
cup of soup I got had an expiry tag from 2 weeks prior in it. I still ate it.
I lived. I can't say that I was happy about it though.

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ck2
How is this a "good thing" ?

Take something they rightfully have to give away and instead make profit from
it.

I already see grocers giving out tons of food to the local food bank, if they
can convince governments to let them profit from it, that is one more path
against poverty taken away by corporate entities.

Another way to eliminate waste would be to price the product lower?

If a regional grocery throws away tons of bananas each week, why not make the
bananas half the price and run out of bananas each week?

~~~
digitalboss
Btw - you mention grocers giving tons of food, is actually not true. It's a
very slow process, taking a way too long to become a popular trend. Hopefully
with this latest story and initiative that other large/med/small grocers jump
on board.

The poor/needy in the US are eating fast food more and more, as they can't
afford groceries, with high costs for meat, vegetables and milk all rising.
I'm excited to see how this program is launched and copied.

~~~
ck2
Fast food is not a matter of being cheaper than groceries, it is a matter of
no grocery stores in walking distance of the poor, but the 7/11 or McDonalds
is.

Fast food is far more expensive than groceries. I haven't eaten at a fast food
place (or any other restaurant for that matter) in a couple of decades.

~~~
makomk
Also, not everyone has properly-equipped kitchens or the time to cook, and in
fact there are some assholes who think anyone who does have basic kitchen
equipment shouldn't be allowed to call themselves poor. (Remember that
infamous Fox News slide implying most "poor" people weren't because they had
fridges? Which is, really, fairly fundamental to being able to cook for
yourself.)

