3 ms·

> That is a real legal concern in US jurisdictions. I'm fairly certain there's some on-the-record case law too. There have been a few attempts to substantiate

> That is a real legal concern in US jurisdictions. I'm fairly certain there's some on-the-record case law too. There have been a few attempts to substantiate this, but as far as I know there's no solid evidence that it's ever actually happened, let alone happened regularly enough to represent a serious risk. It's reminiscent of a lot of "stupid lawsuit" urban legends (some of which resemble real cases, but omit or change key facts).

jonhohle 3y ago
The McDonald’s coffee lawsuit is often cited as an example, but most people don’t know the details - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liebeck_v._McDonald%27s_Restaurants https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liebeck_v._McDonald%27s_Rest...
- watwut 3y ago
  Dunno, that one is bad example, because it still looks like bad decision after you read details.
cartoonworld 3y ago
In my limited experience with one food-serving corporation, I found that their main issues were around quality. It is a very bad look to be serving unpalatable (but safe) food, period. The thought is that since exceeding the expiration (or more accurately, the quality) date of the ingredients (for example, tomatos) renders the finished products as substandard in some way, its frankly kind of a dick move to serve food you wouldn't sell to paying hungry people to any hungry people let along poor hungry people. Quality dates are a big part of spoilage in the food service industry, so the quality departments in all of these organizations try to min-max the dates to best represent their required quality, and of course their requirements are longevity, palatability and mostly sales. If an otherwise reputable food retailer begins serving a secondary market with what is definitionally substandard products, it opens a large and murky doorway to liabilities extending far beyond a mere lawsuit. What if the next kitchen mishandles the food and serves gross food to people in need? Even hungry poor people will dislike week old, vinegary tomato slices. There is also the possibility of cross contamination, but in general it is just best to avoid being one local news reporter away from revealing that FoodCo got $foo tax write off for serving mushy tomatoes to old people. A better use of this resource would be to transfer the wasted or spoiled food to a facility which creates compost for local residents or farms.
- AlbertCory 3y ago
  You are misinformed about donated food. I've helped a food bank guy load donated food from the Safeway. It is not substandard. Bananas, for instance, are donated if they have any spots. Bread is donated after a day, when it's perfectly edible. Also a lot of milk. Second Harvest is a good place to research, and they oversee my food bank. Strict food safety rules are enforced, and they donated a refrigerated van to us.
  - cartoonworld 3y ago
    I am not misinformed, I was instead describing my experience with one corporation's reluctance to provide the food to food banks. One thing they were able to do is freeze their precooked egg patties that would have been thrown away for texture reasons for later use in a protein stock for a charitable kitchen's cafeteria in some way that I was not informed of. This corporation was a prepared food retailer, not a grocery store in case I have been too unclear. In their case they used nitrogen-packed presliced tomato pans to streamline food prep for their line, which is why I chose tomatos as the example.
    - AlbertCory 3y ago
      You said, "Quality dates are a big part of spoilage in the food service industry, so the quality departments in all of these organizations try to min-max the dates to best represent their required quality, and of course their requirements are longevity, palatability and mostly sales. If an otherwise reputable food retailer begins serving a secondary market with what is definitionally substandard products, it opens a large and murky doorway to liabilities extending far beyond a mere lawsuit. What if the next kitchen mishandles the food and serves gross food to people in need? Even hungry poor people will dislike week old, vinegary tomato slices." "the food service industry" : that term doesn't seem limited to prepared food retailers, if that's what you meant. as for "week old, vinegary tomato slices" : Second Harvest, at least, would outright reject those.
      - cartoonworld 3y ago
mattmaroon 3y ago
When I worked in the meat department at Sam’s Club, we had to dye any meat we threw away green. The idea was that this was clearly marking it as inedible and discouraging dumpster divers from eating it so they couldn’t sue us over getting sick. If they did eat it and get sick, it gave us plausible deniability because we obviously tried to make them not eat it and there’s nothing more we could do within reason. I’m not an attorney and don’t know the case law, but I don’t think these sorts of risks are merely hypothetical. Big corporations don’t like wasting labor (even a few minutes per day for a few employees per store adds up to millions at Walmart scale) so if they’re doing it, there’s a good reason. I guess it might not be the reason they told us but I can’t imagine why else I’d be dying meat green as I tossed it.

jonhohle 3y ago

The McDonald’s coffee lawsuit is often cited as an example, but most people don’t know the details - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liebeck_v._McDonald%27s_Restaurants https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liebeck_v._McDonald%27s_Rest...

watwut 3y ago
Dunno, that one is bad example, because it still looks like bad decision after you read details.

cartoonworld 3y ago

In my limited experience with one food-serving corporation, I found that their main issues were around quality. It is a very bad look to be serving unpalatable (but safe) food, period. The thought is that since exceeding the expiration (or more accurately, the quality) date of the ingredients (for example, tomatos) renders the finished products as substandard in some way, its frankly kind of a dick move to serve food you wouldn't sell to paying hungry people to any hungry people let along poor hungry people. Quality dates are a big part of spoilage in the food service industry, so the quality departments in all of these organizations try to min-max the dates to best represent their required quality, and of course their requirements are longevity, palatability and mostly sales. If an otherwise reputable food retailer begins serving a secondary market with what is definitionally substandard products, it opens a large and murky doorway to liabilities extending far beyond a mere lawsuit. What if the next kitchen mishandles the food and serves gross food to people in need? Even hungry poor people will dislike week old, vinegary tomato slices. There is also the possibility of cross contamination, but in general it is just best to avoid being one local news reporter away from revealing that FoodCo got $foo tax write off for serving mushy tomatoes to old people. A better use of this resource would be to transfer the wasted or spoiled food to a facility which creates compost for local residents or farms.

AlbertCory 3y ago
You are misinformed about donated food. I've helped a food bank guy load donated food from the Safeway. It is not substandard. Bananas, for instance, are donated if they have any spots. Bread is donated after a day, when it's perfectly edible. Also a lot of milk. Second Harvest is a good place to research, and they oversee my food bank. Strict food safety rules are enforced, and they donated a refrigerated van to us.
- cartoonworld 3y ago
  I am not misinformed, I was instead describing my experience with one corporation's reluctance to provide the food to food banks. One thing they were able to do is freeze their precooked egg patties that would have been thrown away for texture reasons for later use in a protein stock for a charitable kitchen's cafeteria in some way that I was not informed of. This corporation was a prepared food retailer, not a grocery store in case I have been too unclear. In their case they used nitrogen-packed presliced tomato pans to streamline food prep for their line, which is why I chose tomatos as the example.
  - AlbertCory 3y ago
    You said, "Quality dates are a big part of spoilage in the food service industry, so the quality departments in all of these organizations try to min-max the dates to best represent their required quality, and of course their requirements are longevity, palatability and mostly sales. If an otherwise reputable food retailer begins serving a secondary market with what is definitionally substandard products, it opens a large and murky doorway to liabilities extending far beyond a mere lawsuit. What if the next kitchen mishandles the food and serves gross food to people in need? Even hungry poor people will dislike week old, vinegary tomato slices." "the food service industry" : that term doesn't seem limited to prepared food retailers, if that's what you meant. as for "week old, vinegary tomato slices" : Second Harvest, at least, would outright reject those.
    - cartoonworld 3y ago

mattmaroon 3y ago

When I worked in the meat department at Sam’s Club, we had to dye any meat we threw away green. The idea was that this was clearly marking it as inedible and discouraging dumpster divers from eating it so they couldn’t sue us over getting sick. If they did eat it and get sick, it gave us plausible deniability because we obviously tried to make them not eat it and there’s nothing more we could do within reason. I’m not an attorney and don’t know the case law, but I don’t think these sorts of risks are merely hypothetical. Big corporations don’t like wasting labor (even a few minutes per day for a few employees per store adds up to millions at Walmart scale) so if they’re doing it, there’s a good reason. I guess it might not be the reason they told us but I can’t imagine why else I’d be dying meat green as I tossed it.