| Topic: | Re:Re:M&S Chiswick Refuse to donate Green Salad for the homeless | |
| Posted by: | Dan Murphy | |
| Date/Time: | 06/03/15 12:26:00 |
| M&S and other supermarket chains have to adhere to extremely strict regulation around food safety and supply chain traceability. Especially with highly perishable foods like fresh food (salads, vegetables, fruits, etc). All the regulations are laid down in highly detailed European directives, and M&S would certainly have central control teams who monitor and manage how every item of food is managed through the supply chain, into stores and out. When food hits the sell by date, the rules around disposing of it are draconian. there have been examples of Supermarkets giving food away to charity only for someone to get ill because something had gone off. And of course the supermarket then gets sued. So to stay on the safe side of the regulations, store managers are told very clearly they have ZERO local flexibility over how and when they dispose of food other than through the normal sales channel. Any store manager giving away "out of date" or "close to sell by" food, would lose his job. And of course, they are not allowed to simply take stuff off the shelves and give it away to charity. This is known as "Sweethearting" in retail (when a store assistant gives a product to a friend and forgets to ring it through the till), and any store manager or member of staff caught giving stock away will also get fired. So please don't be too hard on the M&S Store manager, they have a very strict set of rules they must obey and they aren't going to break them for you. |