If you're willing to go dumpster diving, you may bring home some amazing finds. In this case, a Redditor posted about finding several cartons of milk that don't expire until March 2025. Leaving them to ask, "Why is this in the garbage?"
According to the OP, "It was cold enough outside that it was like a natural refrigerator. Now I've got 3 of these." However, here is some food for thought — it may not have been cold enough in the store's refrigerators, or a customer may have returned the milk.
Many stores often have a dilemma due to refrigeration issues caused by outages. It's understandable that stores don't want to risk giving spoiled or rotten food to customers — people can get sick, and then the store may have a liability case. However, if the issue is caught in time, stores can feed lots of hungry people. A perfect example is the Arkansas Foodbank that gave out over 60,000 meals after a Kroger in North Little Rock had a power outage.
When a similar outage happened at Trader Joe's in at least two different cities, they gave customers free groceries that required cooling. Speaking of free food, Sofie Juel Andersen, a Danish resident and supermarket dumpster diver, told Newsweek, "I don't pay anything now, so I save a lot. I probably save more, as I take home more food than I would buy."
If certain perishable goods are too far gone to eat, stores or the dumpster divers who find them can repurpose them into compost. Trader Joe's has also given old produce away for this reason, or has turned it into animal feed — goats and pigs love pumpkins apparently.
According to Aldi's website, the company has reduced food waste by 57% since 2017 in Great Britain.
To Aldi's credit, many people in the comments understand the discarded milk may have been a legitimate food safety concern for them.
As one stated: "Potential temperature abuse. Failure of a refrigerator/left outside refrigerator then thrown out. Just because it's cold now doesn't mean it was always kept cold."
A current Aldi employee spoke up: "Current Aldi employee: This was most likely a return. Any frozen or refrigerated item that gets returned goes in the trash."
🗣️ Should grocery stores donate food that's past its sell-by date?
🔘 Yes — as long as it's not bad 🤢
🔘 Yes — but only certain foods 🥫
🔘 Only if it doesn't cost the store 💸
🔘 No — it could lead to problems 👎
🗳️ Click your choice to see results and speak your mind
On another plausible note, a commenter stated: "Likely placed there by a customer that changed their mind, but didn'tcare enough to actually return it to the fridge. Since the employee has no way of knowing how long it's been out, it gets thrown out for liability reasons."
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