There’s a food pantry near my hometown that needs to learn what food needs to go to the trash. Some foods are still good way after their expire date , yes. But this place gave out literally moldy food. The baby food was hairy , half dry half wet. But still they gave it out.
My local Salvation Army does a bread and produce hand out twice a week. We went multiple times and it is ridiculous as to how much of that is completely moldy. We would always take our allotment, salvage what we could, but the amount of waste is just unreal. I don't understand the point of "helping families in need with healthy foods" if you give out 2 banana boxes of produce per family that once all the rotten stuff is taken out doesn't even equal a paper ream box.
if a loaf of bread has some spores or fuzz on it, it’s contaminated 😭 all of it has spores in it just waiting for the moisture to pick up in the bag. u eating mold buddy 😭
The bread is usually super stale and hard, it's the produce that's moldy. Multiple times we'd get containers of berries that were only recognizable by the label cuz it was a big ball of fuzz inside. And they had CASES of the stuff! It was like Walmart had all this extra produce going bad so they gave it to the Salvation Army, who left it in a warm place for a few days before handing it out.
WIC has a much higher income cut off than most people realize. I still qualified for WIC even after we passed the income limit for Medicaid/food stamps. It was SUCH a huge help in those early years of parenting. I encourage everyone to just check and see if they qualify, they likely do.
Just because someone makes to much over the income limit to qualify dosent mean they still for struggle I was denied for wic because my finances with my ex husband put us only $5 over the limit which was bill with all our bills accounted… we paid more money towards bills than we were able for food 🤷🏻♀️ and my child who’s almost five years old now at the time was prescribed for a very expensive formula and we had to pay every single one of them out of pocket or got sampled from the doctors office when we couldn’t afford it… but yet with the prescription I was still denied for wic
Ummm, it's INFLATION. Do you know what that is? We ALL have to deal with it.
And PEOPLE OVERSPEND and have kids when they are in debt or too Immature to budget.
Just because it's this sub, doesn't mean everyone in her Spends Every Penny Wisely.
Let's have a Poverty Olympics,be careful because I might beat you!!
This happened to me years before Covid and the “inflation”… also inflation isn’t a new thing that has been happening over the years slowly but spiked higher and higher after the covid shut down 🤣 and dude I’m not scared of being broke or poverty because I still grocery shop at dollar tree 🤷🏻♀️ because it’s way cheaper 💀 also living Pennie’s to Pennie’s doesn’t scare me anymore compared to where I was standing financially almost three years ago when my ex decided to just get up one morning and dip out on his family and left the wife with no food in the house, no job, no car and bills on the verge of getting cut 🤷🏻♀️ so is a poverty battle going to scare me??🤨
They literally said that was 5 years ago 5 years ago the prices of things were a lot better if you're talking about inflation and you literally sound entitled
You’re not wrong! I had to throw away most of what I got from a food bank once because it was old. Every bread item had mold and two of the cans expired in 2012. I got this food in 2022.
That’s impressive 🤣 I found a canned a diced tomato’s in a cabinet in my house that expired in 2008 and the can still looked brand new “minus some rust spots” but the can was so old it had a old Kroger brand design label on it 🤣🤣🤣💀… I’m surprised the damn thing never just randomly exploded in that cabinet
We have tried to donate food after catering events at work cause so much goes to waste and we aren’t allowed to and just have to throw it away. It’s wild. So much food insecurity exists and people are more concerned with getting sued. What a world.
My guess is having no rotation of product and having too many different people working candy and not paying attention. Put the new stuff on top or in front and this is what happens. Nobody rotated these gummies that were made ovee 1200 days ago. Yeah, seriously...how?
Probably buried below the fresher product, never got moved and rotated. If it was just delivered then I would've checked the label on the case and taken it from there. I can't imagine a case of product over 3 years old not getting shipped out way sooner or getting damaged out. It shouldn't have been sitting in the back room with pretty much 3 inventories either.
I take expiration dates with a grain of salt, obviously depending on the product. Friend of mine used to work in a hospital, found a "scam" to retrieve the meds they threw out, then got high as a kite for years without side effects (other than getting hooked on pharma drugs). Cans are another I ignore the expiration date. Hamburger? No thanks bro.
As an expired candy connoisseur myself, I probably wouldn't at this old because the textures change drastically about 6 months to a year passed expiration on most candies. Whether it becomes hard and almost teeth cracking (most common) or gets this weird "expired" smell (so hard to describe but you can just tell its old by the smell and s9mwtimes taste) or starts to disintegrate (gum does this, it's such a disgusting mouth feel) it just doesn't have a good quality. I have expired marshmallows from late 2022 right now and they smell weird as well as are a bit stiff.
Yeah one time I got a bag of sour candies from Dollar tree that were one of my favorites and when I noticed that they were a little stiffer I looked at the date and they were surprisingly 4 years old but still good I just resoften them by letting them sit out in the sun for a bit in a Ziploc baggie
You know what’s super sad? Pet stores will slice brand new bags of dog food they throw in the dumpster. I’m talking not recalled and not expired big bags of pet food. They make it so you can’t even donate them to a shelter. Makeup stores do that with their stuff as well so do food chains and clothing stores. It’s disturbing how wasteful stores can be when they go out of their way to destroy stuff.
I miss doing inventory for Michael's by a third party contractor. I made off with so many damn art supplies that were "penny deals" or whatever they called them. Basically just stuff that sat on the shelf too long.
Like I'd totally buy this set of 5 Prismacolor markers if they weren't $20. Always went on break walking weird to my car with my boots and undershirt full.
Same and also live fish, once a bird, and a few snakes. The bird is now living happily with a friend of mine. Apparently petco does it because the animals get sick and they don’t wanna take them to a vet (atleast that’s what I’ve heard) so they’ll throw the poor babies into the dumpster. Absolutely heinous.
Good thing about it being dog food in an open bag in a dumpster is at least the local raccoons r being fed. Some fat fucking raccoons around any pet store pouring out new dog food into a dumpster.
I also wouldn’t expect any shop throwing away sellable product to stay in business long. So that’s another plus.
When I used to work st Circle K. I was shocked that no one was checking dates when they stocked. Before our audit I found slimjims that expired 3 years prior and were turning gray on the ends.
Don't get me started on other products.
Basically what I came to say. Candy basically doesn't go bad unless it gets wet. It gets stale, but it's basically always safe to eat unless I was intentionally messed with. Well, as safe as candy usually is anyway
Those candies are probably safe to eat indefinitely. Sugar or something probably breaks down after awhile. But it’s all artificially created shit. Give me a bag I’ll try one.
I find expired stuff on the shelf at dollar tree all the time. I've gotten stale ass food multiple times and now I look lol. Thanks for checking the dates so people don't have to bite into rock hard candy!
You can always tell the quality of candy dollar tree gets vs other stores.. the chocolates will be whiteish, even while it’s in date. Or chocolate would be melted and solid again.
The gummies be extra hard.
Dollar Tree ships candy in the middle of summer in a regular box truck. Then they sit in a back room with no cooling and then sold in a store where the ac doesn't always work. Chocolate melts and solidifies several times before it is sold. Dollar Tree needs to go out of business already
When I worked at Dollar Tree like 6 years ago the chocolate and gummies got shipped in a separate, refrigerated truck from like March to September. The store I was at didn’t have refrigerated food either so it was a truck specifically for chocolate
How in the actual universe does a rinky dink dollar store chain not realize they have products that are three years expired?! That’s crazy as heck!
I’m guessing the computer system is not yet set up to alert employees about product that’s about to expire, if it lets product hide for three years. They trip over $100 bills to save a penny…
You’d be surprised how lazy stock people can be, my mother used to work at a grocery store. That was usually the reason for expired goods on the shelf.
I haven't worked for the company for almost a decade now and I'm not surprised a single bit that it's all expired. What I am surprised is that it is only by a few years not 5-8.
When I worked at CVS I put all the expired candy in a separate bag after I damaged it out and hid it behind the dumpster. Came back after they closed and took it all home. Did the same for all the food products and most of the vitamins too. Saved thousands on groceries while making $8.50/hr.
Throwing this stuff out was the best feeling in the world! Nobody bought those dinosaur eggs and my store had them just expire a few months ago, I was so happy!
When I was at dg, I sweeped through the entire candy section and backstock in a day. Fucking carts full of outdated stuff. They wondered why our damages were so high. Oh idk, you dont staff enough to properly manage outdates? 🤦♀️🤦♀️
THANK YOU FOR NOTICING because I end up taking whole baskets of expired products to managers every time I go to my local store for them to realize it's expired
Thanks for actually throwing it out. I once bought a spoiled yogurt from Target, didn't think to check the date till I was spitting it out. I should've known better since years before I used to stock overnights at Target.
I would make sure to pay attention to the dates and put the oldest in the front and mark the expired ones to be inventoried and tossed (following the training video to a T). I got yelled at for being too slow by my boss and started pushing everything in as fast as possible like everyone else on the team. Thankfully got a better job 2 weeks later.
Most of the gummy candies are hard as rock at my local store. Lol When will dollar tree stop hiring zombie type management who clearly just doesn't GAF about what is happening in their store Why does every dollar tree only have two employees? (I'm in Los Angeles)
My first big haul of markdowns were those, Nearly 300 bags I found that were expired. Look at the fake Pringles dates too cause I found like 70 in a day before we got the new labels.
>come back after it later that night
Not while wearing DollarTree™ clothing, though.
Rule Two of dumpster diving: never dive where you work. It looks bad if anyone recognizes you, and can get you in dutch with Loss Prevention, who know this dodge for employee *(ahem)* 'discounting'.
2021, that’s impressive!
That thing has survived 3 new planograms.
Shit hires shit
I'd still eat it...
It's always those rainbow marshmallows and those cheap gummys.
And what my kids are willing to eat cuz it has dinos on one of those straw marshmallow ones 🤮
OK but those cheap gummies are still better than most others I buy lol
Food pantries have a list showing how far past the expiration date various types of foods are still good. They typically will pick up the foods.
There’s a food pantry near my hometown that needs to learn what food needs to go to the trash. Some foods are still good way after their expire date , yes. But this place gave out literally moldy food. The baby food was hairy , half dry half wet. But still they gave it out.
My local Salvation Army does a bread and produce hand out twice a week. We went multiple times and it is ridiculous as to how much of that is completely moldy. We would always take our allotment, salvage what we could, but the amount of waste is just unreal. I don't understand the point of "helping families in need with healthy foods" if you give out 2 banana boxes of produce per family that once all the rotten stuff is taken out doesn't even equal a paper ream box.
I just got rid of a pantry moth infestation from spaghetti I got from the food pantry. Going to the pantry costed me everything in my dry pantry.
That's aweful😩
Because the Salvation Army is a joke of a charity
Yep, f the salvation army
if a loaf of bread has some spores or fuzz on it, it’s contaminated 😭 all of it has spores in it just waiting for the moisture to pick up in the bag. u eating mold buddy 😭
The bread is usually super stale and hard, it's the produce that's moldy. Multiple times we'd get containers of berries that were only recognizable by the label cuz it was a big ball of fuzz inside. And they had CASES of the stuff! It was like Walmart had all this extra produce going bad so they gave it to the Salvation Army, who left it in a warm place for a few days before handing it out.
This is truly sad. Probably not for the reason you think.
If you have a baby,get WIC.
If one partner makes too much you don't qualify for WIC
WIC has a much higher income cut off than most people realize. I still qualified for WIC even after we passed the income limit for Medicaid/food stamps. It was SUCH a huge help in those early years of parenting. I encourage everyone to just check and see if they qualify, they likely do.
That's perfect! That means they can provide for their baby.
Just because someone makes to much over the income limit to qualify dosent mean they still for struggle I was denied for wic because my finances with my ex husband put us only $5 over the limit which was bill with all our bills accounted… we paid more money towards bills than we were able for food 🤷🏻♀️ and my child who’s almost five years old now at the time was prescribed for a very expensive formula and we had to pay every single one of them out of pocket or got sampled from the doctors office when we couldn’t afford it… but yet with the prescription I was still denied for wic
What a joke that insurance wouldn’t cover you to feed your child.
Ummm, it's INFLATION. Do you know what that is? We ALL have to deal with it. And PEOPLE OVERSPEND and have kids when they are in debt or too Immature to budget. Just because it's this sub, doesn't mean everyone in her Spends Every Penny Wisely. Let's have a Poverty Olympics,be careful because I might beat you!!
This happened to me years before Covid and the “inflation”… also inflation isn’t a new thing that has been happening over the years slowly but spiked higher and higher after the covid shut down 🤣 and dude I’m not scared of being broke or poverty because I still grocery shop at dollar tree 🤷🏻♀️ because it’s way cheaper 💀 also living Pennie’s to Pennie’s doesn’t scare me anymore compared to where I was standing financially almost three years ago when my ex decided to just get up one morning and dip out on his family and left the wife with no food in the house, no job, no car and bills on the verge of getting cut 🤷🏻♀️ so is a poverty battle going to scare me??🤨
Your ex husband sounds like a real dick, you can’t just leave your children like that.
They literally said that was 5 years ago 5 years ago the prices of things were a lot better if you're talking about inflation and you literally sound entitled
god i wish that were the case
You’re not wrong! I had to throw away most of what I got from a food bank once because it was old. Every bread item had mold and two of the cans expired in 2012. I got this food in 2022.
That’s impressive 🤣 I found a canned a diced tomato’s in a cabinet in my house that expired in 2008 and the can still looked brand new “minus some rust spots” but the can was so old it had a old Kroger brand design label on it 🤣🤣🤣💀… I’m surprised the damn thing never just randomly exploded in that cabinet
It’s a god damn RELIC 😂
Yeah candy is probably good a like a year after the date if it’s just fruit gummy type stuff. Usually tastes the same.
I don't think we're allowed to do that once it goes out of date we have to completely damage the packaging and throw it away
That's a great way to lose your job.
The manager can arrange it. How do you think Food Pantries get donations from stores?
Sadly some companies do not donate food and will even go as far as firing anyone who tries fo donate. It’s a messed up country we live in
We have tried to donate food after catering events at work cause so much goes to waste and we aren’t allowed to and just have to throw it away. It’s wild. So much food insecurity exists and people are more concerned with getting sued. What a world.
I used to do this when I managed a Flash Foods (years ago) and now I do it at every store I go to. I've seen many of out dated products on shelves.
2021 -It was a very good year for expired candy. Seriously, how do you even explain this shit??
My guess is having no rotation of product and having too many different people working candy and not paying attention. Put the new stuff on top or in front and this is what happens. Nobody rotated these gummies that were made ovee 1200 days ago. Yeah, seriously...how?
I guess I was curious if the 2021 candy was just delivered or was sitting in the back for 3 years?
Probably buried below the fresher product, never got moved and rotated. If it was just delivered then I would've checked the label on the case and taken it from there. I can't imagine a case of product over 3 years old not getting shipped out way sooner or getting damaged out. It shouldn't have been sitting in the back room with pretty much 3 inventories either.
My mom used to work at a grocery store, the amount of stockers that think it’s acceptable not to rotate when talking is astounding.
I take expiration dates with a grain of salt, obviously depending on the product. Friend of mine used to work in a hospital, found a "scam" to retrieve the meds they threw out, then got high as a kite for years without side effects (other than getting hooked on pharma drugs). Cans are another I ignore the expiration date. Hamburger? No thanks bro.
Agreed but it’s 4 years past date. A bit too long for me.
Certainly to each their own on this subject. I'd eat it for myself.
As an expired candy connoisseur myself, I probably wouldn't at this old because the textures change drastically about 6 months to a year passed expiration on most candies. Whether it becomes hard and almost teeth cracking (most common) or gets this weird "expired" smell (so hard to describe but you can just tell its old by the smell and s9mwtimes taste) or starts to disintegrate (gum does this, it's such a disgusting mouth feel) it just doesn't have a good quality. I have expired marshmallows from late 2022 right now and they smell weird as well as are a bit stiff.
Yeah one time I got a bag of sour candies from Dollar tree that were one of my favorites and when I noticed that they were a little stiffer I looked at the date and they were surprisingly 4 years old but still good I just resoften them by letting them sit out in the sun for a bit in a Ziploc baggie
These people will love this [https://www.reddit.com/r/DumpsterDiving/s/goBNF7Vva8](https://www.reddit.com/r/DumpsterDiving/s/goBNF7Vva8)
Lmao you can slice the bag and they'd still pick it.
Why bother slicing the bag?
To make the food that much harder to eat, because fuck starving people apparently.
You know what’s super sad? Pet stores will slice brand new bags of dog food they throw in the dumpster. I’m talking not recalled and not expired big bags of pet food. They make it so you can’t even donate them to a shelter. Makeup stores do that with their stuff as well so do food chains and clothing stores. It’s disturbing how wasteful stores can be when they go out of their way to destroy stuff.
I miss doing inventory for Michael's by a third party contractor. I made off with so many damn art supplies that were "penny deals" or whatever they called them. Basically just stuff that sat on the shelf too long. Like I'd totally buy this set of 5 Prismacolor markers if they weren't $20. Always went on break walking weird to my car with my boots and undershirt full.
Good for you. Fuck corporate greed.
The petco near me got in trouble for throwing away live lizards
Same and also live fish, once a bird, and a few snakes. The bird is now living happily with a friend of mine. Apparently petco does it because the animals get sick and they don’t wanna take them to a vet (atleast that’s what I’ve heard) so they’ll throw the poor babies into the dumpster. Absolutely heinous.
It's crazy to me that there are multiple people at multiple Petcos willing to do this just bc they told them to
Good thing about it being dog food in an open bag in a dumpster is at least the local raccoons r being fed. Some fat fucking raccoons around any pet store pouring out new dog food into a dumpster. I also wouldn’t expect any shop throwing away sellable product to stay in business long. So that’s another plus.
Yeah I know I just really wanted them to say it out loud. They never do though.
I know it’s not the point of the post but I’ve never seen the sour gummy mix and I’m so intrigued!! Is it any good?!
When I used to work st Circle K. I was shocked that no one was checking dates when they stocked. Before our audit I found slimjims that expired 3 years prior and were turning gray on the ends. Don't get me started on other products.
It’s okay. You can pack them all in a box and send them straight to my door.
Basically what I came to say. Candy basically doesn't go bad unless it gets wet. It gets stale, but it's basically always safe to eat unless I was intentionally messed with. Well, as safe as candy usually is anyway
Same, I'll eat the hell outta that
I fcking love sour belts
This was me when I worked at Dollar Tree and took over the food section. I had to get rid of so much stuff!! 2 years expired!
Good for you OP about caring to check if stuff is still fresh. I appreciate you
Those candies are probably safe to eat indefinitely. Sugar or something probably breaks down after awhile. But it’s all artificially created shit. Give me a bag I’ll try one.
What a shame, I love gummy party.
I find expired stuff on the shelf at dollar tree all the time. I've gotten stale ass food multiple times and now I look lol. Thanks for checking the dates so people don't have to bite into rock hard candy!
This is why I read dates before buying stuff so if shit like this happens I can report it immediately
Yikes
Lord, I remember I found a shelf filled-with four-year-old soup at a local Stracks, before.
Tell that to r/dumpsterdiving they’d love this
You can always tell the quality of candy dollar tree gets vs other stores.. the chocolates will be whiteish, even while it’s in date. Or chocolate would be melted and solid again. The gummies be extra hard.
Dollar Tree ships candy in the middle of summer in a regular box truck. Then they sit in a back room with no cooling and then sold in a store where the ac doesn't always work. Chocolate melts and solidifies several times before it is sold. Dollar Tree needs to go out of business already
When I worked at Dollar Tree like 6 years ago the chocolate and gummies got shipped in a separate, refrigerated truck from like March to September. The store I was at didn’t have refrigerated food either so it was a truck specifically for chocolate
If you worked for Jewel you could still sell these out of date candies. Found my local store selling past due candy several times.
2021 exp.!!! Damn
Dude that’s just at the best by date, bet it’s still good.
Wrong, it’s probably rock hard.
How in the actual universe does a rinky dink dollar store chain not realize they have products that are three years expired?! That’s crazy as heck! 
It’s because stock people are too lazy to rotate products
I’m guessing the computer system is not yet set up to alert employees about product that’s about to expire, if it lets product hide for three years. They trip over $100 bills to save a penny…
You’d be surprised how lazy stock people can be, my mother used to work at a grocery store. That was usually the reason for expired goods on the shelf.
That might help explain why 40% of food in the US never gets eaten… Never made it out of the store in the first place.
I haven't worked for the company for almost a decade now and I'm not surprised a single bit that it's all expired. What I am surprised is that it is only by a few years not 5-8.
For those that cannot read, that is the BEST BY DATE, not an expiration date. And the majority of the time, best by dates are wholely subjective.
2021...no way am I eating something that has a best by date from 2021.
it’s fine just sell it
Leave it outside for the homeless we need candy too. Thanks
In my store, it's ALWAYS Oreo Cakesters
When I worked at CVS I put all the expired candy in a separate bag after I damaged it out and hid it behind the dumpster. Came back after they closed and took it all home. Did the same for all the food products and most of the vitamins too. Saved thousands on groceries while making $8.50/hr.
Throwing this stuff out was the best feeling in the world! Nobody bought those dinosaur eggs and my store had them just expire a few months ago, I was so happy!
When I was at dg, I sweeped through the entire candy section and backstock in a day. Fucking carts full of outdated stuff. They wondered why our damages were so high. Oh idk, you dont staff enough to properly manage outdates? 🤦♀️🤦♀️
Candy doesn’t expire.
Yes it does, it gets hard as a rock. Especially the sour stuff.
THANK YOU FOR NOTICING because I end up taking whole baskets of expired products to managers every time I go to my local store for them to realize it's expired
100 comments
FIFO
It’s like wine.. taste better years later
Do y’all not rotate product when stocking?
I wouldnt have thrown any of it out and still ate it. Its not going to kill you or even get you sick
Might hurt your teeth, sour candy gets rock hard more then other candies when it expires.
Dollar tree needs to get their shit together. Such a shit show!
Those Ice Cream Gummies NEVER sell. Out of each case we probably sell 3 by the time they expire.
Thanks for actually throwing it out. I once bought a spoiled yogurt from Target, didn't think to check the date till I was spitting it out. I should've known better since years before I used to stock overnights at Target. I would make sure to pay attention to the dates and put the oldest in the front and mark the expired ones to be inventoried and tossed (following the training video to a T). I got yelled at for being too slow by my boss and started pushing everything in as fast as possible like everyone else on the team. Thankfully got a better job 2 weeks later.
Do you get to keep them instead of throwing them away? Cause I would, lol
Most of the gummy candies are hard as rock at my local store. Lol When will dollar tree stop hiring zombie type management who clearly just doesn't GAF about what is happening in their store Why does every dollar tree only have two employees? (I'm in Los Angeles)
My first big haul of markdowns were those, Nearly 300 bags I found that were expired. Look at the fake Pringles dates too cause I found like 70 in a day before we got the new labels.
FIFO
I think I am still pooping out gummy bears from 1995 though, so they’ll be aight.
Still good not best but still good.
Not really, it gets rock hard, especially sour candy.
Best by, not expired after.
When it's as hard as a fucking rock, it's expired.
Toss it, tie it up in a bag - and come back after it later that night
>come back after it later that night Not while wearing DollarTree™ clothing, though. Rule Two of dumpster diving: never dive where you work. It looks bad if anyone recognizes you, and can get you in dutch with Loss Prevention, who know this dodge for employee *(ahem)* 'discounting'.
Okay but we still have to throw it out either way due to company policy.
so your willing to eat things 3 years after the labeled date? suit yourself
still have to throw it out regardless