Three charged with stealing food from skip

[joe_bloggs*]

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jan/28/three-charged-vagrancy-act-food-skip-iceland

"A man will stand trial next month after being caught taking some tomatoes, mushrooms and cheese from the dustbins behind a branch of Iceland."

"The case will require magistrates to scrutinise the phenomenon of "skipping" – taking discarded supermarket waste to cook and eat, and will highlight the issue of how much supermarket food is discarded, despite long campaigns to reduce the waste. It will also focus attention on a group of people taking radical steps to feed themselves as they struggle with the rising cost of living in London."

Initially arrested for burglary, the three men were charged under an obscure section of the 1824 Vagrancy Act, after being discovered in "an enclosed area, namely Iceland, for an unlawful purpose, namely stealing food".

Police returned the items to the Iceland store. The men were held in a police cell for 19 hours before being released, May said.

Lawyers for the three men have asked the Crown Prosecution Service to consider dropping the case, but the CPS responded this month that the case would go ahead, because "we feel there is significant public interest in prosecuting these three individuals".

In the public interest? Wonder how much all this is costing,suppose it will be up to a jury if it gets that far

[duck_a_lorange]

And the case has just been dropped:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-25950761

The Crown Prosecution Service said Iceland had made representations that "affected our assessment of the public interest in prosecuting".

I wonder how much it's alrteady cost the taxpayer?

[prestonpansy]

If some of the lower transport clerks, spent their clerical time trying to distribute food to cheap outlets, rather than perving on the internet all day, there might be less waste.




Oxygen does not in itself cause food to 'go off'. Bacteria and other microbial life do, some of which may utilise oxygen.

[saasher2012]

It costs money to distribute , not everyone can afford the expense , volunteers are all well & good but they still have to pay for fuel etc, also Health& safety is an issue. I wonder if the Salvation Army would or could get involved they usually are at the front of this sort of work & do a great job.

[cee-dee]

Quote (from an American site, hence the spelling):-

"Free oxygen is a major culprit in food spoilage. When food browns, its components join with oxygen, or "oxidize," much as iron does when it rusts. Oxygen is also necessary for molds, yeast and aerobic bacteria to survive and wreak their damage."

 And:-

The most effective way to prevent oxygen damage is to remove and replace the oxygen with an inert gas. All those clear cello-packs of potato or corn chips, pretzels or popcorn that display their contents of salt and greasy calories so effectively on supermarket shelves are inflated with nitrogen gas. Punch a small hole in one and squeeze the gas inside onto a burning match. The flame will go out.

[lhasa.two]

As a First World country we should not have "scavengers", unless they are birds.

The poor supermarkets will have to find a way to keep out the greedy people,  stop the arguments and fights etc., my heart bleeds for them...

 With profits in the millions and billions in this time of austerity, food banks, food waste and profligacy by supermarkets, the CPS needs to concentrate its efforts on prosecuting big companies who evade their taxes not target 3 men of "no fixed address" to make an example of them. Iceland rightly don't want to prosecute, a pragmatic decision on their part particularly as they have had bad press in recent months.

[cee-dee]

At the root of it all is bad management in that the stores in question don't rotate stock properly or make sufficient efforts to sell the stock before the "Display until" date is up.

The "Use by" date is not "up" so the food is perfectly safe.

It would be cheaper to simply give the stuff away in the store than to dump it but the individual store management should ensure it doesn't get to that stage.

[ecclesvinaigrette]

At the root of it is not bad management, it is becoming increasingly rare for store managers to have any influence over what they receive. These days it is the role of stock control specialists who use sophisticated software and ordering just in time. By far the biggest influence on waste is the good old British weather.
Also worth noting is the role of moisture and temperature in food spoilage and did you know that one of the worst spoilage items is cooked rice Bacillus cereus now there is one nasty problem if you don't take care.

[bankhaunter]

I always go to my local Coop after 4.00 pm because that is when food due to expire that day is sold at very low prices, if it can be frozen it goes in the freezer, if not either I eat it that night or the next day.

Christmas dinner was a duck bought at half price.

Many skip divers are not desperate poor people but those who could be said to make a virtue of it, it's been practised for years.

As for the supermarkets attitude, imagine what would be said if they allowed it and somebody died from food poisoning.

[cee-dee]

Aren't the "stock control specialists" part of management?

It's also the role of the store management to sell whatever stock they've got, not throw it away.

Supermarkets (and the store managers) are far too ready to stick stuff on the shelves and hope it "sells itself". If something is "sticking", it's their job to promote the product to get it sold.

As to cooked rice, I completely agree, those bugs are very dangerous and people seem ignorant of the danger of eating "warmed up" or old, cold rice.

[saasher2012]

One of the major causes of food poisoning is through rice, bacteria continues to grow at a rapid speed unless chilled and stored correctly & immediately after cooking.

[ecclesvinaigrette]

Yes of course, all I am saying is that Waste and shrinkage are top priorities and store Managers have to maintain very tight targets for both. What is more difficult is controlling the range size, some supermarkets see all vendors as competition and therefore try to offer too many lines, far more than can easily sell without reducing stock levels to splitting cases. The growing success outlets of Aldi and lidl deal in full euro pallets into store but have a restricted range, Waitrose are the opposite. Many many factors come into play.

[saasher2012]

I know that the smaller outlets in villages have no control in what they sell because they are governed by what their larger store sends them.

[cee-dee]

I saw what Aldi offered when they first started here and then a lot of their stock was "cheap" (ie, cheapjack).

Since then, they've changed tack and gone for better quality (at a lower price of course) but they're also a bit crafty. They might have (for example) Carrots and Onions at a seemingly very low price but when you actually see them in store, the Carrots are those very short ones and the Onions are small.

If you pick things carefully, some of their stuff is very good, often as good as, sometimes better and MUCH cheaper than the "big four". Not everything is cheaper or better so you need to look carefully.

[prestonpansy]

Oxidation of foods often occurs when fats ( lipids) decompose....see decomposition and bacteria; as the fats decompose and react with oxygen, ... note the state. There is a difference between plant/animal cell chemistry when living and when not.

See redox reactions, and confusion in the chemical chain process

google monkey will only get you so far







Starving a product of a potential energy source  component  will help but as some bacteria can respire anaerobically
it isnt a cure all. Neither is lowering of temperature which may slow down the rate of bacterial growth
Not all bacteria utilise oxygen, humans can even respire for short periods without it.

You could change the PH, but then it might taste a lot different.

[joe_bloggs*]

What an incompetent useless bunch the CPS is,cases are going to court and either the CPS doesn't have all the papers or in some cases they don't turn up at all ! The magistrates are obviously getting sick of this and have been dismissing cases

Probally some snooty little get from the CPS thought he'd make a bit of a name for himself by prosecuting some people he though as undesirables

In a way i wished it had gone to court,not for the people involved to be prosecuted,but for the public to hear what some people with no money are forced to do

their solicitor stated :"They planned to plead not guilty, arguing that they were not acting dishonestly - a defence we felt confident the court would agree with at this time of austerity, food banks, food waste and profligacy by supermarkets."

Mr Schwarz criticised the CPS for coming to a decision "so late... in the light of media exposure".

And i,m sure if i found myself without food or money for whatever reason i'd also be clambering over the nearest supermarket to root through their skips,how many would let pride get in the way and starve?

[cee-dee]

The latest:-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-25959965

The bloke is already squatting = living free in property belonging to someone else and his attitude seems to be that if he wants something (needs as far as he's concerned) he'll take it.

[bankhaunter]

I wonder how many shoppers would start complaining if supermarkets in their desire to cut waste, had empty spaces on their shelves and the shopper's choice was much reduced?

How many supermarkets would really be happy to be just giving food to people who would otherwise have to pay for it, many skip divers do have the money to pay?

[bankhaunter]

And I wonder if taking food from an Iceland skip is a good idea?

http://www.essexcountystandard.co.uk/news/10917293.My_Iceland_chicken_was_full_of_maggots/?ref=ar

[cee-dee]

Shocking!

It's a case though, where they've been let down by their supplier. Also, no-one knows yet whether it was delberate sabotage by an employee of the supplier?

[fionajohnston]

up here in shetland we have 2 supermarkets co-op and tesco i work in tesco and both of them reduce food in tesco at points in the day food gets reduced starting at 10% then 25% and so on rund 8.30 it's down to 90% and any-thing left at 9.00 is 99%i assume most others do the same i know our co-op does

just before christmas i got 6 loaves at 1p and in nov. 7 or 8 joints of pork,beef and lamb for 30p although this was due to getting 3 deliveries in one day after no ferries for 3 days so a lot was short dated

same people in shop at 9.00 buying the bargains

being stuck on the check-out means i miss a lot but there's a couple of customers who will pick up stuff for me and the others so we don't miss out on everything

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@cee-dee wrote:

Shocking!

It's a case though, where they've been let down by their supplier. Also, no-one knows yet whether it was delberate sabotage by an employee of the supplier?

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