A photo of an abandoned shopping cart filled with various foods at Walmart was recently posted online, causing surprise and sadness among commenters.
Images show shopping carts full of bacon and other meats, frozen pizza, baked goods and other items, all ready to be thrown in the garbage. Frozen food and refrigerated sections are sealed off with yellow caution tape.
“It’s a tragedy to do this in America when there are so many people.” [go] I’m hungry every day,” wrote TikTok user hurladenton (@redbirds29691), who posted the image. “Unbelievable, so rude…I called Walmart and complained that I could have donated right away. I was told they wouldn’t donate.”
In the comments section, a commenter asked if there was a power outage, and he replied, “It’s not a power outage, it’s telling me something about the temperature.” [gauges]” That means the food was probably still perfectly good for consumption, but ended up in a landfill due to store policy.
This is especially alarming given that food is the “single largest component of U.S. landfills,” accounting for 22%, and that the U.S. throws away approximately 119 billion pounds of food each year. That’s true.
“What the hell…” another commenter wrote. “Food Lion, Publix, and Ingles donate to food banks.” (Incidentally, it appears that not all Publix stores donate food that would otherwise go to waste.)
To avoid liability issues, many stores have policies in place that prohibit food from being served if there are refrigeration issues, but these policies are not as clear-cut and ironclad as they may seem.
For example, one Trader Joe’s gave away thousands of dollars worth of food after its refrigerator broke. No one has sued them and Trader Joe’s remains open. In another example, Kroger in Arkansas donated 60,000 meals to local food banks after a power outage.
In this case, it’s unclear whether Walmart donated this food and could have simply chosen not to donate it, but either way, it’s hard to imagine so much food going to waste.
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