What do supermarkets do with expired meat

The unsaleables are stuffed into cardboard banana boxes, each one containing a mixture of up to 40 different food and health and beauty items. No one box is identical. So Quillen says she really doesn't know what's going to line her shelves until she opens them up. In fact, out of the 1, boxes in a single delivery there might be just one jar of much-desired blueberry jam. Up to 50 percent of Quillen's stock is outdated and a further percent is very close to its best-before stamp.

But clearly her customers don't mind. She checks online, visits Walmart, and uses leftover price labels on stock as an indicator of the former retail value of her stock. Then she prices it a full 50 percent cheaper.

Outdated cans of Campbell's chunky soup at 80 cents and Campbell's regular soups at 50 cents were big winter sellers. With the arrival of spring, Quillen anticipates that the canned fruit will be in demand. Quillen's customers now don't think about much the dates, but when she first opened the shop five years ago, it was a different scenario.

Now some of her customers spend hundreds of dollars at a time. While other businesses may be suffering during these lean economic times, Quillen says that her sales have increased nearly 40 percent over the past year. And she's confident that this isn't a fad. And she often brings home outdated foods. Bryant won't touch outdated dairy products, but she'll happily throw expired canned foods, cereal, and granola bars into her shopping cart.

With savings of more than half what she would spend in a regular store for the same amount of food, she knows its worth glossing over a past best-before date or two, especially since she's never had any problems with the quality of her purchases. Ryan Blankenship, 34, owner of the California Discount Grocery, got into the salvage business less than two years ago when he realized how lucrative an industry it was. Recently he noticed that the amount of expired foods he receives fluctuates with the seasons.

A department that handles any type of prepared foods will use these items to make items for hot bars, salad bars, soups, etc.

The same goes for meat and seafood that is past its sell by date but still within its best by date. Composting seems like the natural answer for all the other produce that can't be used. This issue has been explored and explored at our supermarket, and there are two major roadblocks to seeing it in action.

Bakery - Almost all old baked goods get donated to the local food bank, which disperses it to not for profit agencies in the area.

Every morning, a big shopping cart of old muffins, donuts, and bread makes its way to the back dock, and every morning at 10AM, a van rolls around and picks it up. Meat and Seafood - Lately, within the past couple of months, they've been testing out freezing meats that have just passed sell by date and donating these to the local soup kitchens. Again, this is still in its infancy, and some issues have arisen that have taken the logistics of this back to the drawing board.

The main issue becomes, and always comes back to, safety. What happened to the product in the mean time? Traceability is of paramount importance until it gets to the store, but the cost involved with continuing that traceability until it reaches donations is economically unfeasible. Grocery and Dairy - Unfortunately, for the same reasons Meat and Seafood can't be donated, many refrigerated, expired dairy products don't make the list. The good news is that very few items get thrown out.

Longer shelf lives, higher demand, and tight orders ensure that the only dairy products that really get thrown out are the damaged ones that aren't safe for consumption anyways. Grocery items are given to food banks. I'm sure some smaller markets donate directly. At our store, everything expired is packed and freighted to headquarters, and they distribute the goods evenly among the communities that our supermarkets are located in. Daily pickup is tough, and will the green and monetary price of labor and the cargo make up?

The logistics of this operation are somewhat more involved than you might think. Recalls — Regrettably, recalls because of contaminated fruits and veggies do occur. A lot happened after the merchandise was for a while at the shop. In the event, melons are composted by the shop, and the melons are remembered as a result of salmonella contamination that is potential, then you have mulch. And that is sufficient to set the problem. Bakery — all products that are outdated become given.

Each morning, a cart of cakes, donuts bread gets its own way and each morning a van at 10 AM rolls around and picks up it. Sharing is caring! When it comes to produce, a grocery store may donate edible but unsalable produce to charity or a zoo. Zoo animals often benefit from donations of usually expensive food items that are unsalable for one reason or another.

Some grocery stores may donate produce items to animal farms , or sell the excess cheaply to farmers to feed their stock. Many grocery stores also get rid of bread and dairy products this way. If produce starts to go bad, a grocery store may attempt to compost it. Many grocery stores have access to separate greenwaste collection so that they can compost produce, bread, and some other products.