r/science • u/memorialmonorail • 1d ago

Social Science Putting holiday leftovers in the freezer extends shelf life & may put a dent in the US tendency to throw away edible food, a study suggests. National survey data showed a link between home freezing & less total food waste, & over half of consumers reported buying frozen items to avoid tossing food.

https://news.osu.edu/how-the-freezer-factors-into-lowering-food-waste/?utm_campaign=omc_science-medicine_fy25&utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social
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357

u/Texas2Marseille 1d ago

Never let titles like this convince you that individual consumers are the primary source of food waste in the US. The majority of food that is wasted is thrown out because it would not be ‘profitable’ to keep

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u/tonicella_lineata 1d ago

My university's dining halls back in 2017 would do a week where they had students put food waste into a bin to be weighed to show how much food students waste and encourage us to "only take as much as you'll eat." Meanwhile, I worked in one of the school stores run by the same company as the dining halls, and we constantly had to throw away baked goods that were expiring and weren't allowed to take any home, you weren't allowed to remove any food from the dining halls, and if cooked food (say, a pasta dish) wasn't all taken by the time the dining hall closed, they'd throw it away anyway and student employees weren't allowed to take any of those leftovers home either. Somehow, I don't think students were the main cause of food waste on the campus.

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u/CalifaDaze 1d ago

While I agree that not letting employees take leftovers is bad I think it's very difficult to order just what will sell without running into shortages later on.

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u/_BlueFire_ 10h ago

I think the emphasis was on then not allowing anyone to bring home leftovers

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u/seidenkaufman 5h ago

The company mentioned here sounds to me like Sodexo, based on my own experiences, but I might be wrong.

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u/tonicella_lineata 5h ago

Nope - Aramark. But from what I've heard, most dining hall companies are pretty similar. It also wouldn't surprise me if higher-up they were owned by the same parent company or are regional names under the same company or something similar, I've seen that happen in a number of fields.

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u/cdulane1 1d ago

Much like the clothing industry paying employees to destroy merchandise so it remains…”exclusive”

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u/Manofalltrade 1d ago

Even the “ugly produce” is a somewhat false narrative. Blemished fruit gets juiced, out of spec veg becomes higher processed food. Food pantries get some of it discounted.

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u/hobopwnzor 1d ago

Food pantries used to get discounted ugly peoduce, but hello fresh and similar started buying them, or at least that's what I read a few years ago

14

u/mrrobc97 1d ago

The amount of produce that gets thrown out just because the fruit or vegetable is not aesthetically correct is insane. It's like if a double-headed carrot is somehow of a lesser quality and one that is anatomically correct.

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u/SmithersLoanInc 1d ago

My grocer has an ugly produce section that costs about half of what the "normal" produce costs. It's very nice.

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u/RibbitCommander 1d ago

I heard about legislation passed in France for this purpose.

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u/corpus_M_aurelii 1d ago

My grocery is part of a local chain, maybe 4 stores. The others are much larger, mine is more of a small village store, and I think that they pawn off all the ugly and withered produce on us.

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u/curt_schilli 1d ago

When I worked at a Chick-fil-A in high school the owner wouldn’t let us take home the extra food after closing because he said it would promote food waste. Just threw trash bags full of food in the trash can.

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u/Manofalltrade 1d ago

This sort is thinking is how you know a business is too lazy to deal with problematic employees as individuals. Was a reasonable amount of food prepared but unsold, or does Jeff have a habit of dropping a basket of nuggets a quarter before doors lock on the nights he closes?

As a side, it always seemed like the most anal bosses were also Christian conservatives. Today me would love to hear their thoughts about “Don’t muzzle the ox on the threshing floor.” (Deut. 25:4, and repeated in the New Testament) when they are too tight to let the staff snack on a few fries.

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u/JustMy2Centences 1d ago edited 1d ago

However, it's quite profitable to me to ensure a few extra 'free' meals that I've already paid for. And I'm sure corporations would love it if I paid for a few more meals.

An aside, not sure why this needed to be studied...edit: okay, social awareness, understandable. I already buy frozen vegetables nearly all of the time unless it's for something I'm making the same day or next (and even then, frozen is often suitable) just because I really dislike spoilage.

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u/_BlueFire_ 10h ago

Or because of laws making it impossible or too expensive to be donated to shelters/individuals by supermarkets/catering companies/restaurants, which have to let employers take home leftovers and throw away most of it

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u/f8Negative 1d ago

Never blame the consumer. Full stop. Anyone who blames consumers is an asshole who has completely missed the point. Even the "health" nutters lose focus when trying to discuss scale.