How Norway is selling out-of-date food to help tackle waste

Supermarkets selling out-of-date produce and apps that identify food at risk of being binned are part of an ambitious plan to slash the nation's food waste"They might not taste quite the same," says Naeeh Ahmed, 37, holding up for inspection a pack of Old El Paso soft tacos. The tower of boxes in front of him are three weeks past their best before date but Ahmed, operations manager at the Best F?r supermarket in Oslo, says they'll stay on display for a good few weeks yet. The same goes for the chocolate biscuits precariously piled up in the display - four weeks past their best before date - and the packs of Tassimo coffee pods that should have been sold in April. But all the prices reflect the product's age: half-price for the tacos, two-thirds off the biscuits and, at 30 kroner (?3.66) for 32 pods, the coffee is also less than half its regular price.It would be hard to find cheaper food in Oslo than that sold at Best F?r. They flog the stuff that no one else has been able to get rid off. Products whose season has passed, or which have been overproduced, have been arriving at this small store since October last year when the mainstream Lentusgruppen supermarket chain heeded the call of the Norwegian government and decided to take food waste seriously. They established an offshoot in Oslo, the first of its kind in the city, selling the stuff other stores and suppliers throw away. It's all up front - the shop looks like any other, but a large sign informs customers of the slightly different nature of the food down their aisles and in the chillers, which includes chicken fillets frozen a couple of days before going off. Continue reading...