Supermarket offers fresh take on expired food
It may be past its sell-by date, but for many Danes it's a tasty proposition: a supermarket in Copenhagen selling surplus food has proved to be so popular it recently opened a second store.
After launching in the gritty inner city district of Amager earlier this year, the "Wefood" project earlier this month drew a long line as it opened a second branch in Norrebro, a trendy neighborhood popular with academics and immigrants.
Hipsters rubbed shoulders with working class mums as a cooking school founded by Claus Meyer - a co-founder of Copenhagen's Noma restaurant - handed out cauliflower soup and bread made from surplus ingredients.
"It's awesome that instead of throwing things out they are choosing to sell it for money. You support a good cause," said Signe Skovgaard Sorensen, a student, after picking up a bottle of upscale olive oil for 20 kroner ($2.90).
"Isn't it great?" pensioner Olga Fruerlund said, holding up a jar of sweets that she planned to give to her grandchildren for Christmas.
The sweets "can last for a hundred years because there is sugar in them," she added.
Selling expired food is legal in Denmark as long as it is clearly advertised and there is no immediate danger to consuming it.
"We look, we smell, we feel the product and see if it's still consumable," project leader Bassel Hmeidan said.
All products are donated by producers, import and export companies and local supermarkets, and are collected by Wefood's staff, all of whom are volunteers. The store's profit goes to charity.
Prices are around half of what they would be elsewhere, but even its biggest fans would struggle to do their weekly shop here.
The products available depend on what is available from donors, resulting in an eclectic mix that changes from day to day.
One weekday afternoon, customers were greeted by a mountain of Disney and Star Wars-branded popcorn, while the fresh fruit section had been reduced to a handful of rotting apples.
Food waste has become an increasingly hot topic in recent years, with initiatives ranging from a French ban last year on destroying unsold food products, to a global network of cafes serving dishes with food destined for the scrap heap.
The Britain-based The Real Junk Food Project also opened the country's first food waste supermarket in September.
According to the United Nations, nearly 1.3 billion tons of food are wasted every year, more than enough to sustain the one billion people suffering from hunger globally.
Wefood next year plans to open in Aarhus, Denmark's second largest city, but John Wagner, chief executive of the Danish Grocers' Association, said the brand was unlikely to become a major chain.
"The problem should be solved before we get to the point where we have to give the products to a store like Wefood," he said.
(China Daily 11/28/2016 page10)
