this post was submitted on 01 Nov 2025
        
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What grocery store throws away fresh produce? I worked in the industry for 15 years. We donated out of date everything to food banks and kitchens to be used within the week.
From my experience Kroger in Houston TX is pretty bad about throwing things out instead of passing it to the needy.
The only reports I have seen of this is due to a power outage. Do you have any reports on this? I have a hard time seeing an industry standard in several areas that I have worked in, being different in just that area.
I have seen many reports of farmers discarding their crops. But that is different than the distribution end.
2005 I was employees while in high school and told to bin a ton of produce when a coworker asked to take it to the local kitchen and a close friend who is currently employed by Kroger (working there for 7ish years now).
That said I have not seen any hard reports outside of my very old experience and an account from a current employee (friend).
a store near me had an unfi outage(wf) and they have throw ever refrigerated food, produce out and took a month to recover from.
Well that's because if they can't keep it refrigerated and it spoils it could harm someone and they could be sued for hurting people. Should they have given it away? Probably. But the logistics to do that may not be available at the time.
That argument has been shut down over and over and over and over and over again. Just FYI. It's a non issue.
No it's not. At least not internally. The companies do not wish to risk the liability. And it's a sound decision. It takes weeks to stock a store. You cant just move everything and ensure that it's kept to the same standards immediately. It's a logistical nightmare.
They're afraid of something that hasn't happened.
Though it should be, donating like this is not mainstream. It's logistically cheaper to fill the dumpster than to haul it to a food bank.
I worked in the industry for 15 years along 4 different companies and they all did it in several locations. Throwing away molting greens or rancid meat. Sure. But edible food? Never seen it.
Unfortunately, I have experience at the end of the line so to speak, and the number of trucks disposing of otherwise edible food is disheartening. Not to discount your experience of course, but not seeing it happen doesn't mean it isn't happening elsewhere.
I understand but I have never witnessed it and have several colleagues across the country. As a distribution center it is different than the farmers. The farmers definitely dispose of things and reports of that can easily be found.
This. I got a bad review for my company when a customer returned a croissant and said she ordered a pain au chocolate. I threw it out in front of her, I'm pretty sure it had a bite out of it, and gave her the right chocolate croissant she wanted. But she gave me 1 star review and said I was being a an ass. Everyday we donated our old inventory to soup kitchens and the like, it was mostly danishes, bread, soup, dessert pastries. But we don't give returns to anybody, I worked in the city and they could of touched it.
That is not what the OP is talking about. They are talking about en mass throwing away perfectly good food. Reselling returns is a liability. If anyone took any bite there are things that can be transmitted and not safe.
to my knowledge, there is a law in california that reimburses grocery stores for their soon-to-expire product they donate to food banks and homeless shelters. it's not there to force donations but instead to encourage donations. since it's statesia, i can imagine civilized countries have similar frameworks that we adopted.
That's good. I am just asking for evidence besides anecdotal and isolated. If they are doing it habitually and everywhere as everyone here wishes for me to believe I would think there would be reports somewhere. But I can't find much on the Google.