While Walmart has ambitious goals to reduce food waste, situations arise in which food must be thrown out because the expiration date has passed or a store can't sell certain products.
It's an upsetting part of life, especially if you're an employee with a firsthand idea of how much food gets wasted in grocery stores.
What happened?
An employee posted on the r/walmart subreddit that dozens of boxes full of meat were headed for the dumpster just days after tons of turkeys were discarded due to a storage issue.
"All claims from just this afternoon in meat department," the original poster wrote above the photo.
"This stuff tears me up inside," one person commented. "The amount of food waste is terrible. Now, equipment failure is one thing, but the stuff that has to be claimed out just because of customer stupidity, that disgusts me to my core."
"Mines like this, but its like 95% of the people who work in meat," another replied.
"Sadly, totally believable," said someone else.
Why is food waste concerning?
A significant amount of food is wasted by consumers, grocery stores, restaurants, and other retailers worldwide. According to Earth.org, approximately 20% of the food grown for human consumption — enough to feed 3 billion people — is discarded each year. Meanwhile, around 800 million people suffer from malnutrition, and many others struggle with food insecurity.
When grocers dispose of unsold or expired food, they often raise prices to offset the losses, and consumers — especially those with lower incomes — may struggle to afford nutritious options. As environmental awareness grows, many grocery stores are trying to donate or recycle food. Not doing so could have a negative impact on their image.
All the wasted food also puts stress on the planet. According to Earth.org, if food waste were a country, it would be the third-largest contributor to heat-trapping pollution, behind the United States and China. Other resources, including land, water, fertilizers, and fuels needed to transport the food, are also squandered.
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The temperature in my home 🌡️ Is Walmart doing anything about this?
Walmart has impressive policies and goals when it comes to food waste. Its website states that the company aims to reduce global operational food waste by 50% by 2030 and is actively working to divert food waste from landfills and incineration. The retail giant also donates unsold food to nonprofits through its food donation program and collaborates with third-party companies, such as Denali, to utilize technology to de-package food waste, making it easier and faster to recycle.
It's unclear why the meat at the OP's was being thrown out, but it could've been expired, unsold, spoiled, or recalled due to contamination. It's worth noting that grocers usually try to salvage food when they can, but if items are unsafe to eat, donating or recycling them is no longer an option.
What else is being done about food waste?
When retailers determine that excess food is safe for consumption, they may donate or even give food to customers after a power outage knocks out their freezers, as Trader Joe's and Kroger have done.
At home, you can make a difference by planning ahead before you go shopping and getting creative in the kitchen with leftovers. You'll save money and keep the extra food from ending up in landfills.
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