Why i rescue food in germany
The western world has a problem, dumping food.
Every day 1billion people have to starve on this planet, on the other hand we produce food that could easily feed 10-12billion people. So what happens with all this leftover food, easy answer. It ends in the dumpster. Only 2/3 of what farmers produce actually end in a supermarked the rest get`s thrown right away because it doesn`t fullfill the standards, some cucumbers don`t grow straight, some pepperbells get funny shapes and so on. This all ends back on the field.
But it goes on in supermarkeds, if it`s not sold quick enough it has to get thrown away. Germany has 2 dates on foods, one is the best by and the other is use `til. Food that is only best by can easily be eaten after it ran out of date, my personal record was a yoghurt 2months after the best by date. Was still ok.
We are a group of people who volunteerly pick up left over food from supermarkeds and distribute it. Sadly we have to do it in a greyzone of the law. Because what would good intentions be if the goverment wouldn`t find a way to make it harder. A charityorganisation for food has to have a climatized car and is not allowed to pick up food that is expired, we pick up with our private cars for animal shelters. And even tho much of our food goes to this animal shelter we distribute a lot amongst families in need.
I`ll never forget the feeling when i opened one of the dumpstercontainers and it was full with meat and cold cuts. It must have been 300kg, most of it was vacuumsealed and still good. But the regulations forbid to sell it once it`s out of date.
The supermarkeds don`t care who picks it up, for them it`s just a great way to safe money. Throwing food is not cheap and the less containers they need the less money they have to spend. It`s the goverment who came up with all those rules and regulations.
So if a supermarked in your area sells food much cheaper because it runs out of date, don`t go past it. Buy it, it`s as good as the full price and the supermarkeds will have to throw less. You will safe a lot of money and do something good for the environment.
You have received an upvote from @livesustainably. I promote and curate content that encourages and educates others in living sustainably.
I also run competitions for those making the world a better place. Check out this weeks Don’t Buy It competition here
Since recently there is a law in France that requires supermarkets to donate unsold food. Hopefully Germany will implement something similar soon.
The law is not helpful, the goverment simply made a rule that dumping the food is forbidden and if they don
t donate or get rid of it in an allowed way, there will be a fine. Charity organisations still have to proof that they have a climatized truck, climatized rooms and so on. The law would mean an end to many private charities who pick up everything in private cars. Plus i simply dont believe that the goverment can help to solve a problem they created by their superstrict regulations in the first place.