Jeremy Seifert on Food Waste in America

Jeffrey Seifert is slightly mistaken about the purpose of food expiration dates, at least as relates to packaged foods. The dates are set voluntarily (and somewhat arbitrarily) by manufacturers not to protect against litigation but rather to protect the image of their brand. The notion is to get the food off the shelf long before there's a chance that it might start to taste a little stale or tired and that such a taste be associated with the product.

This fellow, Jeffrey Seifert, is not a journalist, but unfortunately, he presents very limited observation as empirical fact. All Trader Joe's stores donate code spoils. I've been with the company for five years, and every day of my employment, we've donated any viable spoils. Blaming retailers for code-dates is ludicrous! We do not establish those dates, and we strenuously promote that products are viable a good two weeks past their coded "sell-by" date.

Dumpster-diving is illegal, period. Government regulation demands that perishable products leave shelves according to producer-established dates (Trader Joes manufactures no products whatsoever, but negotiates private-labeling). Trader Joe's has had product donation as a function of its business model since well before the filmmaker's project was released.

I understand that he was featured as an artist, not an expert, but he did not seem to make the same distinction. Fact-checking some of his wildly erroneous claims could have brought a necessary informative dimension to Steve Paulson's piece.

By the way, I am a retail crew member, not a representative of the corporate structure, I just disliked the tone of Seifert's broad-brush attacks on a nationwide company based on his experience with one location.

If Trader Joe's does donate food, why didn't they tell Jeremy? In my experience on another issue - sustainable seafood procurement - Trader Joe was similarly, surprisingly unwilling to answer my questions as a customer - I love Trader joe's and shop there regularly, but don't buy the seafood - but they also were very closed and recalcitrant in responding to Greenpeace's seafood survey. I would think, even if only for public relations, they would at least pretend to be more open!