Supermarkets Waste Tons Of Food As They Woo Shoppers [View all]

[Sherman A1]

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/09/25/351495274/supermarkets-waste-tons-of-food-as-they-woo-shoppers?

Supermarkets and restaurants serve up more than 400 million pounds of food each year, but nearly a third of it never makes it to a stomach.

With consumers demanding large displays of unblemished, fresh produce, many retailers end up tossing a mountain of perfectly edible food. Despite efforts to cut down on all that waste, in the U.S., the consumer end of the food chain still accounts for the largest share. It comes down to shoppers demanding stocked shelves, buying too much and generally treating food as a renewable resource.

A recent visit to the Hy-Vee supermarket in Independence, Mo., illustrates the problem. Shopper Shirley Phelps scans the banana stand, looking for the perfect bunch.

"I don't want them too ripe," she says, skipping over brown-spotted bananas in favor of a bunch still tinged with green.