Beyond the Shelf: How Grocers Decide What Gets Donated and What Gets Dumped

On a cool-but-sunny February day in Toronto’s west end, a temperature-controlled truck pulls up at the rear of a Metro grocery store, where pallets of food about to reach their sell-by date sit waiting. It’s time for the Daily Bread food bank’s weekly pickup. Each package of meat, loaf of bread and deli item has been carefully inspected before ending up on the loading dock. For grocers, selling perishable items means making continual choices about every item on display—especially the ones nearing the end of their shelf life. For those that don’t sell in time, most stores try to donate them to food banks rather than throw them away....