You should look at the trash cans in a Mcdonalds... Some people take one small bite and leave the burger on the table. Then it gets thrown away.
My local supermarket throw away more food each day than I will ever see in my life.

On the other hand.. THAT'S HOW THE ECONOMY WORKS! There was a time when there was too much milk on the market, and it became so cheap that farmers made next to nothing selling it... so many farmers started dumping milk in the field, tons and tons of milk wasted, just to decrease the supply, so that the price goes up.

So... if you want to stop wasting... work on a better economic system. Till' then supermarkets will be happy selling 1 apple for every 4 they throw away. They just make more money that way.

As a child, I was throwing away food, my mom would say to me: "think of the poor hungry children in Africa". This guy takes it to a whole other scale!

Born from a Chinese family, i can attest about the Chinese culture not wanting to waste a single grain of rice.

The Chinese character rice, is written in combinations of characters 8-10-8. Meaning that it takes eighty-eight steps to produce rice; from the moment rice is cultivated to the moment it enters our mouths.

Food being thrown away *and* food poisoned so homeless people can't eat it.

It's because you and me, who are not willing to take the lightly blackened banana nor the dented apple off the shelf. Because you don't buy a bar of butter when it is close to its expiration date. @ McDonalds they are throwing it away because it is not "safe" to reheat coldwent burgers, and people working there aren't allowed to eat it because they would produce surplus just to eat it, and then blame that it went cold and had to been thrown out.
So don't blame so much corporations or supermarkets, blame yourselves, and next time when you go out for groceries, don't search through two boxes of potatoes to have five in your bin which suit your fucked up lifestyle.
As MJ said it, start with the man in the mirror. Cheers
#3 btw. this thinking about Africa kinda makes me sick. It's not because I don't like them or anything alike, nut what could you do? Send your half a bread and 3/4 liters of milk via post??

#2 Errr... better economic system? Like a ... planned economy?
Heretic! Tie him down to the stake! This lack of faith in invisible hand of free market should be cleansed with purity of fire!

This isn't about how is sold on the shelf, or being efficient. Corporations are so keen on perfection of their products because they are fearful of being sued. Change the public's perception that something substandard is acceptable, and you will change how businesses are run.

I also noticed this a long time ago, super markets throwing away food that looks completely edible. I even get angry when I see people throw away food that they just took a bite of it. Also what #6 said, I was at Mc D' with some friends late at night when they were closing, the guys who work their came up to us and dumped like 5 pounds of french fries on our table and said "Here, eat what you can without getting a heart attack, that was going in the garbage any way." My friends and I looked at the fries and were amazed that all that was going in the garbage, we couldn't eat all of it but we did try, my friends even took some in bags to save for at home.

The US alone could probably feed half of Africa (slight exaggeration maybe) on the food that is wasted.

If we could mix birth control pills in with the food I would be all for sending all our excess foods to Africa and India.

When I came to the US from Europe years ago I was absolutely apalled how much food the average family throws out for weird reasons like "we don't like leftovers" or "it's already bad because it was sitting on the table" or it's "bad" because it has a dent or a brown spot. The problem is definitely people. I don't think I have ever run into people as spoiled and choosy about food than here. It's great that someone like him explains it. Very inspiring, Tristram!