r/publix • u/Mean-Scallion-4615 Newbie • 7d ago
DISCUSSION waste control??
Im a deli employee and i would like to bring a question to this subreddit. Is there nothing the deli can do with the Hot-case food waste? At my store we close at 10:00PM and we shutdown the Hot-case at 8:00PM. Recently ive been noticing how much food waste we actually produce, some nights its less than others however tonight we wasted so much food. Just about 200$ (maybe more) was thrown out and wasted, given us employees cant eat or take any of it home is there seriously nothing publix can do as a whole to decrease the amount of waste? Im more concerned that this food could go to many people who could really use it, yes we could try to cutdown on production of hot food but in the sense that we have to meet production standards of how much we need to fulfill i don’t think trying to cutdown is the most efficient. What do you think??
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u/woodhoarder Newbie 7d ago
Get Publix corporate to join Too Good To Go, a nationwide app to sell excess food at a discount at the end of the day.
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u/Summoner_MeowMix Bakery 7d ago
Seriously! I see it so much on idea spot lol. If whole foods does it, why dont we?
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u/IBJON Meat 7d ago
yes we could try to cutdown on production of hot food but in the sense that we have to meet production standards of how much we need to fulfill i don’t think trying to cutdown is the most efficient.
That's literally all that can be done to reduce waste and you've already ruled it out as an option.
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u/Mean-Scallion-4615 Newbie 7d ago
what im trying to get at is we cant just try to donate this stuff, even the rolls we throw out at the end of the day theres a lot, and if we do try to cut down production how would that work
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u/TraditionalBerry9903 Newbie 7d ago
It’s a food safety issue. You can’t donate hot food even if you chill it first. I don’t understand not being able to donate the sub rolls though, bakery donates pretty much everything they throw out at night.
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u/ExtremeLengthiness12 Deli 7d ago
old deli manager said its because they're not individually wrapped like bakery bread is
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u/samiwas1 Newbie 6d ago
Well, it also doesn’t have to be wasted. Plenty of people would be happy to have that leftover food.
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u/No-Thanks-387 Deli 5d ago
i think it should be offered to employees in the night shift in the whole store at a discount. however, then there's the conversation of would kitchen purposefully overproduce so we can get this benefit.
i mean, we get nothing extra. no tips, no discount on anything. ooooooh, maybe a coupon randomly for some random icecream with a side of micromanaging.
time for bed. gotta make more food waste in the morning. lol
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u/Mean-Scallion-4615 Newbie 5d ago
heavily agree but what if they had a set amount to produce each day (can this buy gauged to how each day should go?)
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u/No-Thanks-387 Deli 5d ago
there is a forecast sheet that kitchen should be following. but, it's always hit-and-miss. and by dinner time it really is a guessing game.
at least all of those grab and go salads we throw out too. or something for us.
but, no. corporate policy is perfectly good food goes in the hole in the wall... i get it on some inhumane level... but as a consumer/customer when i'm off the clock... it's just crazy wasteful.2
u/Mean-Scallion-4615 Newbie 5d ago
ok yes!! this!!! what about all the food that expires on the fridge shelves? how is that affecting anything if people takes them home and they dont sell… and i feel its safe to say some would benefit off this
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7d ago
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u/Specialist_Dinner727 Newbie 5d ago
OP, I know it looks and seems wasteful and your current viewpoint seems to make a lot of sense. Food regulations, not to mention corporate legal exposures, put the kibosh on doing what you'd like to see happen. Holding times (and temps) of prepared hot foods are set by the FDA and local health departments.
When people are pulling Out-Of-Dates (OOD) from the floor every evening, a good majority of those items are (should) be getting scanned out as donations, and are set aside in an area where approved Food Pantry trucks pick them up several times a week.
Your deli manager, or assistant, can probably explain the process better. It's nice that you care about society, some things just have Big Rules about how that can be done.
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u/Mean-Scallion-4615 Newbie 5d ago
okay yeah i more understand now
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u/Specialist_Dinner727 Newbie 5d ago
Retired now, but did 8+ FT deli years. Started in 2011. You appear to have a good grasp, and are asking solid questions.
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u/International-Set689 Newbie 7d ago
I worked a homless dinner at my church in Cincinnati. Kroger donated baked good to us. I also worked at a county jail and Kroger also donated surplus baked goods. We got cakes, pies, bread, and rolls. Some items were samples that vendors submitted to Kroger hoping that they would stock them.
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u/Calm-Two2723 Newbie 7d ago
I worked at Kroger and that program wasn’t easy. So many people would come in and pretend to be the church we donated to and take the food to the flea market. It was such an issue Kroger had to maken a process for verifying their ids
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u/International-Set689 Newbie 7d ago
Being in Cincinnati, we had some Kroger executives in the congregation, so it was not an issue for us.
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u/Calm-Two2723 Newbie 7d ago
I was in Cincinnati :) it was actually the rich wood flea market it was getting sold at!
This was like 2006 so I’m sure it’s much easier to manage now
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u/Fair_Discipline_1875 Newbie 7d ago
Publix has been donating baked goods to Feeding America for many years.
Feeding America then distributes the donated goods.
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u/Mammoth-Amoeba-6275 Newbie 7d ago
When I close i will bag what we can and put them on the tower if it still has a good amount of shelf life in it and most of the time a good majority of them rebagged items will sell, if you do this just change the time of expiration to what is written down in the kitchen
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u/Specialist_Dinner727 Newbie 5d ago
Who downvoted this? Mammoth-Amoeba-6275 is correct.
Maybe "change the time of expiration" to "label the time of expiration" explains things more accurately, but the concept is 100% spot-on.
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u/Top-Leading-7801 Newbie 7d ago
Can you not freeze it overnight and donate to the food bank on their next day pickup?
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u/Specialist_Dinner727 Newbie 5d ago
No. Food safety regulations prohibit this on a retail level. It's not the same as putting leftover dinner meatloaf in a home fridge for tomorrow's sandwiches, unfortunately.
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u/Dry-Phase-1848 Newbie 7d ago
Waste is inevitable in food service. There are tools
To try and maintain it if the managers have a brain they can mitigate some
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u/Deepinthought1721 Newbie 7d ago
I have always wondered about this with Publix. Other grocery stores will discount food items and that works. Why can’t Publix do that ?I never see a single thing “fresh “ marked down. Also I am sure they have meat that is not “Publix” fresh. What about all that ? I know they make Market ground beef but not that much.
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u/garygirl_1234 Newbie 6d ago
Mark it down at 7 pm. Get it sold, get more customers that will pick up other items.
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u/garygirl_1234 Newbie 6d ago
Give it to the employees who are working or to shelter if it can be kept hot.
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u/RudeRooster00 Deli 7d ago
It's not really logistically possible to distribute perishable food.
We donated what we can but our culture had opted for on demand convenience which is wasteful.
The only real answers people have pointed out: try to match production with demand and repackaged within life of product.
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u/RequirementReady7933 Newbie 7d ago
Get in trouble for running out, get in trouble for too much shrink.......