Meal In the Trash

I decided to grab something light for my lunch  and went to the coffee shop  across our office building. It was around 2:00 in the afternoon. I walked into the coffee shop and asked the guy at the counter for 2 tacos and a banana. He politely replied "Ma'am, I can't sell those tacos to you but I can give them to you if you like. They are expired".

I was astounded that they could even consider giving away "expired" stuff. But even before I could express my concern, he replied "Technically speaking they are breakfast tacos that were made this morning at 7:00. As per our policy, the breakfast items need to be sold by 11:00 am, if not they are considered expired. So we aren't supposed to charge you for these after 11:00."

What an awesome deal is all I could say. Those tacos were warm and fresh and 6 hours is too less for a prepared food to get expired. While I was happy that the total bill amounted to only 50 cents (paid only for the banana), I got reminded of the  articles that I read on food wastage in America.

As per the US Department of Agriculture, 96 billion pounds of food or 27% of the 356 billion pounds of edible food available is wasted each year in the U.S. and the nation spends 1 billion dollars a year just to dispose of food waste.

If  a taco in the food warmer of a coffee shop was considered expired after 4-5 hours of its preparation then this statistics doesn't boggle my mind anymore.

Also did you know that poverty is the leading cause of hunger in America. Find that jaw dropping! Over 37 million people in the United States live below the poverty line. Yet this is a catch-22 situation. Restaurateurs and retailers could rather dispose the food than getting sued.

So for now, sadly the food disposal will continue to increase and what would have been  a meal to one will be scrapped by the other.

Anyway that said, those tacos were delicious and they had enough punch to satisfy my appetite.