Target employees shares troubling discovery in store's freezer: 'No one knows who did it'

Many people have accidentally placed frozen food items in their home refrigerator, only to discover several hours later that the products are unusable. Unfortunately, one Target store experienced that situation on a much larger scale. 

What's happening?

In Reddit's r/Target community, a store employee revealed that someone at their location had placed pizzas, gallons and gallons of ice cream, and other frozen goods in a dairy refrigerator.

"Ice cream is completely melted," the original poster wrote. "It was definitely left overnight, no one knows who did it yet but our [store director] is pissed."

"As a freezer worker, seeing this makes me incredibly angry, sad and disappointed," one Redditor wrote.

"If this happened at my store, you'd lose your job immediately," another said.

"Nooo," a third person wrote. "... This makes me want to cry."

Why is this important?

Frozen foods remain fit for consumption nearly indefinitely, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service. However, that picture becomes murky when items prematurely thaw. Safety procedures vary depending on the type of food, but soft or melted ice cream should be discarded, in part because of reduced quality.

While retailers such as Trader Joe's and Kroger have donated food to prevent it from going bad during refrigeration malfunctions or power outages, the snafu at Target likely made it impossible for the store to salvage hundreds of dollars' worth of product, even if it wanted to.

Beyond that, wasted food is a significant environmental concern. The production of lost and wasted food in the United States alone is equivalent to 32.6 million cars' worth of planet-warming pollution, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

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.

When food decomposes, it generates additional heat-trapping gases, including methane. According to Feeding America, nearly 40% of food in the country goes unsold or uneaten, with approximately $145 billion meals' worth of food going to landfills each year. 

Why would a Target employee put frozen items in a dairy cooler?

The retail giant has made significant strides toward reducing operational food waste. According to its website, it maintained a 51% decrease in food waste for two years in a row compared to its 2017 baseline.

Moreover, nearly 1,700 Target facilities offer organics recycling or composting programs, and the retailer has donated almost 155 million pounds of food, or approximately 113 million meals.

It appeared the OP's store was the victim of an isolated mixup or scheduling issue. One commenter suggested that Target might need to refine its new employee training program, but someone else shot that idea down, writing, "This is absolutely common sense though."

"At my store last year … the [fresh distribution center] didn't arrive until 9:30pm," another person wrote. "The closing lead AND the specialty sales [executive team leader] put all freezer and dairy pallets inside the dairy cooler. They told themselves they would transfer the freezer pallets … after they had closed down the store. Come the next morning and all of them are still in the dairy cooler."

What can I do about food waste more broadly?

If you don't want a food item, putting it back in its correct slot at the grocery store is perhaps one of the simplest ways to reduce food waste.

"Guests just leave cheese, milk, ice cream, etc. in a random place because they decided they didn't want to purchase it anymore," one Redditor pointed out.

Other easy tips include making a list before food shopping, storing food properly to keep it fresh for longer (a freezer can assist with that), and cooking creative meals with leftovers. Not only will the environment be happier, but your wallet will be, too. According to ReFED, the average American wasted $782 on uneaten food in 2023. 

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