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Trader Joe's Ex-President To Turn Expired Food Into Cheap Meals

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Re: Trader Joe's Ex-President To Turn Expired Food Into Cheap Meals

#41

Post by Erwin »

marincounty wrote: post #4

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.

Dumpster diving for food has apparently become a whole ideology now, Freeganism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeganism

In their own words: "[Freegans] embrace community, generosity, social concern, freedom, cooperation, and sharing in opposition to a society based on materialism, moral apathy, competition, conformity, and greed."

Re: Trader Joe's Ex-President To Turn Expired Food Into Cheap Meals

#42

Post by jlgreco »

silencio wrote: post #35
refurb wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

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…

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

Re: Trader Joe's Ex-President To Turn Expired Food Into Cheap Meals

#43

Post by ars »

_lex wrote: post #39
ars wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I HATE this. I previously shopped at Trader Joe's with confidence Um, this has NOTHING to do with Trader Joe's! Is it too much to even read the title? Never mind the actual article?

I read the article. You need to read my comment. It's about the fact that food often DOES go bad by the sell-by date, and that Trader Joe - where this guy got his experience - has changed their policies to aggressively push older, effectively near-expired goods on customers. That's what I hate, and it's pretty relevant.

It still has nothing to do with this. If they changed policies it has nothing to do with him.

And his idea of using old food has nothing to do with their policies.

You are combining two unrelated things.

Re: Trader Joe's Ex-President To Turn Expired Food Into Cheap Meals

#44

Post by ars »

_lex wrote: post #36
backprojection wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I generally agree with you - shopping at TJs is a fairly low-BS experience. But I feel that putting less fresh stuff in front is just common sense - its just a a FIFO buffer.

I'd agree with you, if the buffer had a sensible cutoff. The cutoff is currently "tomorrow" - so you'll buy stuff who's useby date is before you've even opened it. Sucks.

You are confusing sell by and use by. Despite what it says, the date on the shelf is almost always sell by.

Re: Trader Joe's Ex-President To Turn Expired Food Into Cheap Meals

#45

Post by dchest »

kunai wrote: post #5

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.

Expired milk can be used to make pancakes! See also http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/dont-be-so-quick-to-throw-o...

Re: Trader Joe's Ex-President To Turn Expired Food Into Cheap Meals

#46

Post by enraged_camel »

yareally wrote: post #26
mansam wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

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.

Well, the milk fridges are also loaded from behind - unlike regular shelves. So with milk at least it makes sense that the newer stuff would start at the back of the row.

Re: Trader Joe's Ex-President To Turn Expired Food Into Cheap Meals

#47

Post by venomsnake »

jlgreco wrote: post #42
silencio wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

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

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.

Re: Trader Joe's Ex-President To Turn Expired Food Into Cheap Meals

#48

Post by [deleted] »

Erwin wrote: post #41
marincounty wrote: post #4

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.

Dumpster diving for food has apparently become a whole ideology now, Freeganism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeganism In their own words: "[Freegans] embrace community, generosity, social concern, freedom, cooperation, and sharing in opposition to a society based on materialism, moral apathy, competition, conformity, and greed."

[deleted]

Re: Trader Joe's Ex-President To Turn Expired Food Into Cheap Meals

#49

Post by r0h1n »

stephengillie wrote: post #24
jjoe wrote: post #9

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. com…

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

They usually are all over the world.

But some interesting economics starts becoming apparent when packaged food products approach the last 1/3rd or 1/4th of their shelf life. For e.g.

- near-expiry food products being exported from developed countries to developing ones (where they still command a premium over local products). I've found entire shelves of imported food products just months away from expiry (out of a total shelf life of, say, 2 years)

- re-badging of expiry dates/lots by unscrupulous importers

- 2 for 1 offers in supermarkets to liquidate near-expiry stock

Re: Trader Joe's Ex-President To Turn Expired Food Into Cheap Meals

#50

Post by digitalboss »

ck2 wrote: post #30

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…

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.

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