A lot of it is to do with EU regulations and the Food Safety Act 1990.
Food gets thrown away from supermarkets and catering outlets when it's still in date because it won't be in date the next day, or after weekend/holiday closures.
If the food is given away, but not stored according to regulations and someone becomes ill, the food can be traced back to suppliers and manufacturers. The penalties for causing food related illnesses and deaths are costly, including prison sentences.
There are schemes beginning to spring up, however, where 'in date' waste food is being given by some supermarkets to qualified people, who are cooking up high quality meals for those who need a square meal. As I understand it, there are some schemes where people pay as much as they can afford.
I was playing Wordament the other day (yes, yes, I know).
For those not familiar, sometimes there's a theme like 'Cricket: six common words', or 'Emotions: 7 common words' and you get extra points for finding the theme words.
The theme of the one I did the other day was 'Britain'. There was me, racking my brains for things which Britain is famous for. I was thinking, science? Arts? Fish and chips?
Nah.
The words were...gardening, gardens, gin and reign.
I tell these stories to my daughter and granndaughter aurally, as my mother did.
My mum and dad met when my dad did his National Service over in Germany. He kept going into the shop where my mum worked and buying birthday cards. All he'd say was, "Für meine Schwester." and grin inanely at her.
My mother was the youngest of nine, but even she was a little taken aback by how many sisters he had.
(He only has three sisters, btw.)
Anyway, they began courting which involved some incidents where my dad hid behind a bush because her boyfriend went past and she hid under the soldiers legs in the back of the truck to illicitly sneak into the off-camp cinema. I was shocked when I heard about those shenanigans, I can tell you. Most unseemly things for parents to do.
When my dad finished his posting, she went over to England for a three week holiday, but the only way they could stay together was by getting married.
As they didn't speak the same language, they requested the wedding mass was said in Latin. It had just gone out of vogue to make mass more accessible to the general English speaking population, so the priest refused. You might find an irony in there somewhere, but I suspect the refusal had more to do with prejudice than anything else. It was 12 years after the end of the war, my mum is German and they had her marked down as a Jew from day one. They didn't like the likes of her infiltrating their Catholic church, even though her father was Polish Catholic and she had been raised Catholic.
Anyway, as my mum didn't understand any of the mass, my dad had to elbow her in the ribs when it was time for her to say, "I do!"
They've been married for nearly 60 years now, so the moral of this tale is...internet dating (they used an ink pen in those days) and travelling overseas for love has been going on for a while now, quite happily.
There's keeping something someone told you confidential, there's doing something you shouldn't and covering your tracks, there's organising surprises, or hiding birthday gifts...
I don't know much about this stuff, but I like the human rights stuff.
And they have just brought in food allergen legislation. I've been waiting 35 years for that, even if it's a bit unsophisticated, problematic and draft-like at the minute.
I'm looking forward to someone finally bringing food legislation which respects people's belief systems.
It might not seem much to some people compared with economics and stuff, but I think it's the basis for inclusiveness and has a knock on effect on how we all get along.
If we all get along and take care of each other, we'll be thinking of how to do that in other ways.
It's really hard to get even the 16, or 30 hour contracts necessary to claim tax credits so people have the minimum needed to live.
There are so many companies who offer temporary contracts for under 12 hours and expect employees to keep the rest of the week free to be able to do those hours at the company's beck and call.
The trouble is, realistic employment rights and liveable wages wouldn't be nearly so profitable for big business, including the government.
I'm guessing the government gets way more tax revenue from big business profits (even taking into account tax credit losses), than they would if companies paid a survivable wage which would be so low as to be reasonably untaxable.
In terms of food hygiene and safety, washing and then sanitising food related equipment isn't all that stupid if you are inclined to eating high risk foods.
jac_the_gripper Forum Posts (5,363)
RE: have people on connecting singles something in common..?
How about the ability to make weird typos?