“Expired” food is good for you: A supermarket exec’s bold business gamble

[brooklynite]

Source: Salon

The former president of Trader Joe’s thinks he can sell the food that other stores throw out.

At first glance, that sentence looks like it tells you everything you need to know: Like Jeff Bezos’ vision of delivery-by-drones, or Elon Musk’s proposed hyperloop, Doug Rauch’s new venture sounds at once promising and kind of out-there, and like it’s possibly just a publicity stunt.

In interviews with NPR and the New York Times Magazine, Rauch laid out the basics: The Daily Table, due to open in May, will be part grocery store and part cafe, specializing in healthy, inexpensive food and catering to the underserved population in Dorchester, Mass. What makes it controversial – at least at first glance – is Rauch’s business model: His store will exclusively collect and sell food that had crept past its “sell-by” date, rendering it unsellable in other, more conventional supermarkets.

Read more: http://www.salon.com/2014/01/20/expired_food_is_good_for_you_a_supermarket_execs_bold_business_gamble/

---

I'm happy to keep most food in my cabinet after its expired, but it'll be interesting to see if they can create a sales market.

[valerief]

1. American CEOs clearly have no problem with risking making poorer Americans physically sick. nt

[thesquanderer]

4. missing the point...

...most food is perfectly good for a while past its stamped date, and for most foods, it's easy to tell by smelling and looking. Foods are mostly stamped very conservatively, and their value is in assuring freshness before you buy, when you are often not in a position to be able to smell or see it. Another variation is food that is still fine, but may be beyond optimum flavor or texture... again, easy enough to determine for yourself. A side effect of this conservative dating is that people throw out perfectly good food because they are scared by the date, and then go out and needlessly buy new food, so it's a great deal for the food industry.

[eggplant]

19. +1

In New York, the law says that the sell by date has no legal significance. Food that isn't safe cannot be sold, regardless of the date on it. Going past the sell by does not make it so, though.

[WhoWoodaKnew]

25. one of my kids is obsessed with expiration dates and it drives me insane...

hell, i eat stuff that is way out of date all the time. i look at it. i smell it. i eat it if it's good. i never get sick. my kid won't touch anything that's ON the friggin' expiration date much less after. it's beyond stupid.

[davidpdx]

43. I'm kind of the same way

If it's on or a day after I'll smell it and as long as it doesn't have a strong odor I'll eat it. Anything past that I'll toss it.

The other difference is here in Korea all food is recycled. I don't know of many places in the US that do that (Sweden does as well).

Is he also a very picky eater in general? I'm just curious.

[WhoWoodaKnew]

55. Not really

[CincyDem]

54. Having worked in the food industry for a while, I can attest...

...that most of the "best if used by" dates have all the scientific basis as a dartboard.

Excluding dairy, with which I have no experience, most food products easily have 2-3 weeks beyond the best if used by date. The process of creating those dates often involves storage a high temperatures for short periods of time combined with some math to extrapolate that high temp degradation to a more realistic temp. Very few foods are actually tested at room temperature to know their duration. Because it's an extrapolation, they make a lot of conservative assumptions. Pile those assumptions up and you get a pad of several weeks depending on the food.

Also, consider that in most cases, it is the consumer who pays the price of short "best if used by" dates. It motivates the consumer to throw something out AND REPLACE IT with another purchase (i.e. more sales for the company). Believe me that in every food company, there's a person sitting in the finance department with an excel spread sheet that predicts how much revenue will be lost by extending the expiration dates by a week, two, or three.

[cynzke]

58. My husband and sister

both worked for a national grocery chain and it is appalling that they have to throw perfectly good food away, including produce and meat. We slaughter millions of animals then toss them away in the garbage. If there is true sin, this is one of the worst.

[Arugula Latte]

59. And first we torture the animals by raising them in abject misery.

[Xipe Totec]

57. Agreed. Sell by does not mean use by. nt

[valerief]

61. I got the point. I also see where this can be abused, too. nt

[Niceguy1]

27. sell by and use by are clearly different things

food past its sell by date is not necessarily unhealthy or unsafe. Best by doesnt mean it is un safe either

[Codeine]

50. Nothing about food that is past it's sell date will make you sick.

Contaminated food will make you ill, but expired food is generally fine so long as it tastes okay.

http://healthland.time.com/2013/09/18/is-your-food-expired-dont-be-so-quick-to-toss-it/

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

2. Is it thinking like this that made him a former president of Trader Joe's?

[NYC_SKP]

3. More honorable establishments donate these foods to local homeless shelters. (nt)

[Brigid]

9. I think many, if not most shelters . . .

Are prohibited from accepting such donations. I could be wrong, though.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

10. I believe that's the case around my area.

We've had food drives where that point was explicitly made to us.

[NYC_SKP]

11. It depends. I've worked with one of the nation's largest food banks.

What they distribute is largely made up from goods that aren't deemed good enough for retail.

These include dented cans, bruised produce, and other less than pristine foodstuffs.

However, when it comes to dated goods: "perishable foods past the original manufacturer's "sell by" (or "best if used by&quot date can be donated, but not foods past a "use by" date."

Good article: http://www.examiner.com/article/how-do-you-know-how-long-food-is-safe-to-eat-what-those-expiration-dates-mean

[frazzled]

23. I hope that's the case now

I remember vividly when my son and I (let's see, he was probably 12 then, so it was 17 years ago) were volunteers at a large soup kitchen operation. Since he had a cold and we didn't want to be on the serving line, coughing and sneezing in people's food, they gave us the job of cleaning out the massive food pantry and refrigerator locker in the back.

They explained to us that a lot of food was donated from the local supermarkets and restaurants (some high end), but they had so much they weren't using it up fast enough. Our job was to look for unusable food and discard it.

OMG ... The bakery departments from two of the classy supermarkets in town had donated tons of bread and baked goods (they can't sell them after a day). Three-fourths of it was turning green on the shelves: mold city. It was way gross. The refrigerator room was even worse: beautiful raspberries, but they'd melted into a gloppy mess of red juice and white fuzz.

This wasn't the most fun I'd ever had volunteering. But after four hours of tossing and cleaning, I at least felt we'd gotten them back on the track to food safety.

[freshwest]

15. Exactly! This business model is making profits off robbing the poorest. Jerk. n/t

[SoapBox]

21. Agreed.

It's just another way for the richest to make even MORE money.

What's next?

Maybe Soylent Green?!

[freshwest]

22. Or the Japanese research that found edible proteins in shit? That's gross! n/t

[SoapBox]

29. Yikes!

I'll pass on that entree.

[freshwest]

31. Well, the scientist simply couldn't resist investigating it as a human food source of the future....

Naturally, dogs knew this all along.

You do know about their attraction for eating cat droppings in their litter box?

Lotta protein there, ya know...

[SoapBox]

32. Or eating "kitty goodies" while we are out for walks!

...no kisses for the dog that day.

[freshwest]

34. Damned straght! That poo poo breath is the worst. No, the farts are worse... What was this thread

about, anyway? Forgot the topic. Aren't we just the most sparkling posters here?

[grasswire]

36. my border collie specializes in canada goose poop

He likes it best when the weather is dry and the poop is slightly crunchy.

Sigh.

[azurnoir]

41. ah a doggie with discriminating taste

he likes the free range completely organic grown poo the best as opposed to that boxed stuff made from who knows what

[Brigid]

5. I doubt that anyone who has ever had food poisoning . . .

Is going to be willing to take a chance.

[Codeine]

51. People don;t get food poisoning from expired food.

They get it from contaminated food. Simply getting old doesn't make food dangerous.

[Renew Deal]

6. There is SOME truth to this.

But not all food and not very far past the date.

[uppityperson]

7. Good luck to them, much food past pull dates is fine for quite a while

Some is not, but there is a lot which is.

[reddread]

8. despicable

there is a lot going on in that grey area, and the fact that a TJ's exec is looking to make some bank off of it doesnt surprise me.
Of course, TJ's has a poor reputation in how they dispose of their expired goods, at least one documentary about dumpster diving showed the extent of their hostility there.
I ASSUME that many organizations are given access at various locations, certainly the new TJ's in Lexington, according to an employee was giving some goods to the local shelter providers.
After years and years of regular gleaning at a Whole Foods, our access to produce dried up suddenly.
This following some repeated runins and strange hostility from a Manager and some new policies involving in store use of the food we were turning into soups and salads.
Its pretty obvious these corporations are making some money back from their donations via tax credits or something on bread and pastries. Perhaps the same incentives dont exist for produce?
I should know more than I do, but my sense of it is probably pretty accurate.
Just realize who is losing out when these innovations crop up.
this is not good news.

[freshwest]

17. Agreed! Skimming off profit by denying those who need that food. n/t

[Jesus Malverde]

12. Recalled raw beef...

Is cooked to the point where the fecal matter and bacteria is rendered safe and then turned into pre made food, think chilli, lasagna and other frozen or canned meat containing products.

I used to think those million pounds of recalled bad beef went into a landfill...and believed in santa too.

[7962]

13. He'll never get liability insurance coverage. 1 person gets sick and blames the day old twinkie,

and he's in court being sued for a million.

[bucolic_frolic]

14. This is old news

I have two stores in my town that do exactly that.

Their sales are growing like gangbusters while the big box
stores are struggling and raising prices because the food
is backing up.

I used to spend I don't know $250 a month at the big
supermarkets. Now I spend about $30. The rest of my
spending is not the difference - $220 - it's more like
$100-120. Of course I do shift my buying based on what's
available, and I will not compromise on healthy food, no junk
at all.

I've had very little I didn't like, and nothing that was
unusable. Just one pharmacy item, a protein mix. It was $1,
I didn't even bother to complain, just tossed it.

The food retail system must have tremendous waste.

[Lenomsky]

18. Oh come on ..

everybody like a wee bit junk food

I try eat healthy but a double cheeseburger the morning after the night before is AWESOMER that cereal.

[bucolic_frolic]

47. Well, there is junk food, and non-junk junk food

Occasionally I eat ice cream. But out went the carageenan and high fructose
corn syrup. I buy the good stuff - at $3.19 a half gallon.

And hot dogs maybe every other month. Kahns, which has a flavor I like,
at 99 cents a pound.

[Lenomsky]

16. Noble!

healthy, inexpensive food and catering to the underserved population in Dorchester, Mass.

A not for profit gig I hope. Been done here in UK charities collect 'sell by' and feed people I assume it happens all over USA too.

[democratisphere]

20. Corporate 'leaders' will stop at nothing to increase their bottom line.....

and lower their standards and our standard of living. No wonder food banks are struggling; the bastards are now creating channels to sell expired groceries.

[MannyGoldstein]

24. The guy's not an idiot

He was president of Trader Joe's for a while, so he probably knows the facts and doesn't want to do something stupid that will get him in trouble. I saw him speak at an event a few weeks ago, and he could charm wallpaper off a wall.

He's trying to find a niche that helps various parties, including him. If he can pull this off and put more food on the table of those who are impoverished, that's OK by me.

What's awful is that this niche exists: why do we do this to each other? Why are we so greedy that we can't leave enough for others to have a good lives. So very, very sad.

[MindMover]

28. We are beyond sad when 85 people own more assets than half of the worlds population ...........

[SoapBox]

33. Hmmm...people that are impoverished

seriously impoverished, have food resources available already (no, those systems aren't perfect).

The article says that he is first and foremost a Capitalist...that is what is driving this. AND that grocery corporations will benefit from an even larger tax break.

I'm just not sure I like the "faux" morals behind this.

[MannyGoldstein]

35. Have you ever shopped at Trader Joe's?

It's Capitalist, but it does a good job.

[pacalo]

42. Well said. I feel the same.

[truthisfreedom]

26. It's ridiculous to assume that food becomes inedible

On a specific date. Meat is one thing, but chips? Nuts? Soup? C'mon.

[SoapBox]

30. Well...I'm not sure exactly what types of products will be offered

but from experience at home (don't ask!), some canned stuff
that is well past the date is awful...chips, cookies and crackers
can go rancid and stale quickly.

They better have really good plan in place!

p.s...I noticed in the article that most of the conversation centered around produce. There was also the theme of money, money, money.

[freeplessinseattle]

40. yeah, and TJs produce is rarely decent anyway

so don't even want to know what their lower tier produce is like!

[grasswire]

37. the chain Grocery Outlet has made its niche with near-sell-date goods

The chain buys groceries that are near the outdate and sells them at ridiculously great prices. I go about once a month to see what the day's bargains are. The cheese selections are really good. I've bought $18 worth of top quality feta for $2, there. That's even better than Trader Joe's. The other great thing is that the store plays classic rock and that's great fun to shop by.

Crackers, olives, dairy....great prices for top quality.

A Wal Mart grocery opened up in the next block. I hope it doesn't drive the Grocery Outlet out.

[LeftyMom]

38. They have excellent deals on shampoo and stuff too.

Some of the stores even have room for a toy aisle: I cleaned up on Lego at one once: $50+ sets for $12.99.

The produce can be hit or miss.

[freeplessinseattle]

39. I love love love Grocery Outlet!!

Be still, my heart... I am a loyal forever!

Tho like to visit different GO's around town, they're all individually owned and oftentimes have some different things. New things come in all the time, some selling out within days, so I sometimes go a couple times a week. I can walk in with few 5s and 1s and leave with a couple bags of groceries.

[bemildred]

44. We aren't all "rich" any more, there is a good market to sell into there again at the bottom.

People want to save money.

The big box stores aren't going to like the competition while jobs remain scarce, they have to keep moving product.

[bucolic_frolic]

48. if enough consumer feed off the expired products

the whole food system will back up. Major supermarkets won't know
what to do with their food for awhile until the system readjusts.

And the big guys are into contracts to take delivery of more food.

I see Lexus and Cadillac at my local closeout supermarkets. And
consumers who travel 80 miles round trip once a month.

Sadly there are also old, poor, slow and tired couples parsing each
price, no budget to spare. One might have a cane, or a walker ...
and this is really sad to me. What our society has done to these people.

[sendero]

45. It depends entirely on the food...

... fresh chicken, I wouldn't eat it very far past the use by date.

Some other "fresh" products as well.

Packaged processed foods? Most are just fine long after the date. Canned goods essentially last indefinitely. Stuff like dried pasta, rice lasts a very long time. Cookies, crackers and snacks will go bad in a few months. Things that are opened and not properly re-sealed will go bad.

The sell by dates on food have more to do with creating demand than they do with any kind of safety concerns.

[durablend]

49. Anything with any kind of oil in it, tread carefully

Usually ok a little while past the sell by/best by date but don't let it sit six months (or buy it if it's that old).

[sendero]

60. I'm going to agree with you...

... with some qualifications. First, the reason for this concern is that when oils come in contact with oxygen they become rancid.

Rancid oils are not good to eat. However, age is not the only factor to consider when evaluating whether a food containing oil has gone bad.

The good news is rancid oils have a distinct odor and are thus easy to detect. If such a food has an off odor, pitch it.

Foods containing oils that are sealed against oxygen can last a long time. For example, I opened a can of peanuts recently that is over 18 months old. The can has a foil (metal) lining and lid. The contents were not exposed to oxygen and the peanuts are fine.

Foods stored in plastic are not as well protected as it is only a fair oxygen barrier. to echo the advice of many here, such foods will last well beyond their date, but not years if they contain oils and are not protected by oxygen-barrier packaging.

[madrchsod]

46. sell by and use by

stores pull stuff if it`s past the sell by. use by is up to the common sense of the user.

[dipsydoodle]

52. Same already done in the UK.

Last edited Tue Jan 21, 2014, 10:49 AM - Edit history (1)

Good idea - helps those on low incomes.

From 2009 : Company selling food past its best-before date thrives in economic crisis http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/foodanddrinknews/4210997/Company-selling-food-past-its-best-before-date-thrives-in-economic-crisis.html

[DetlefK]

53. Yesterday I had mozzarella that was 1 month past the expiration-date.

I found it deep in the back of my fridge. It had been in the brine and in the fridge the whole time. One corner of the bun had turned yellow (but not moldy), I guess because it wasn't underwater the whole time. The rest of the mozzarella-bun was perfectly fine.

[HockeyMom]

56. Canned goods a few momths is fine

but once you get to a year or beyond, I would not chance it.