[jyl]

Good Oregonian article about this (following the initial sensationalist article).

Power went out in the early morning, it sounds like. Fred Meyer, the grocery chain, has prior arrangements to donate perishables to food banks in case of power outage. But the food banks couldn’t come get the food due to ice, their own power outages, etc. In just 2 or 4 hours, the food was unsafe under food safety rules, that grocers and food banks have to follow. At that point it has to be discarded.

Many grocery stores in Portland had to discard food this week. At this Fred Meyer, that afternoon, people started trying to get the discarded food from the dumpster as employees were putting it in. The employees tried to stop the dumpster divers, things got threatening, and the employees called police.

Eventually the police left and the food got taken from the dumpster. Apparently a bunch of it got stocked in the Free Fridges around town, and people presumably ate the rest. It looked like cold case stuff mostly - ground meat, sausage, poultry, etc. I’m guessing the employees were putting the high value stuff into the freezer with ice as soon as the power failed.

So why was the store trying to stop people from dumpster diving? Because there’s legal (and personal) risk if people eat the store’s spoiled meat or get hurt in its dumpster. The legal protection for food donation does not apply to unsafe food or to “donations” to individuals. Putting unsafe food in a store dumpster and not doing anything to stop people from immediately taking it out is pretty close to giving away unsafe food. The store has to at least make an attempt to stop the taking.

Why did the cops respond to this when they don’t respond to other stuff? There’s been enough vandalism in Hollywood that I think the police will try to respond when a business says it’s being targeted. They were there to keep the peace, not guard a dumpster of discarded food.

Hope no-one gets sick from ground beef or chicken they get from this “mutual aid” that was sitting in the warm case for who knows how many hours before being thrown in a dumpster, pulled out, and carted to the Free Fridge. I’d guess most of it didn’t actually go to homeless people (what are they going to do with raw meat) or to food banks or shelters (they won’t take it).

On social media, people are now posting pictures of other grocery stores dumpsters with discarded food saying “come and get it”. Wonder if there’ll be any food poisoning cases from this?