TikTok Is Fuming Over An Alleged Whole Foods Dumpster Dive Again
Right about now, if you head over to your local Whole Foods, there's a chance you may be able to score a 16-pound organic turkey, icy cold and just waiting to be turned into dinner for 10 (via Perdue). But maybe you'll have to do a bit of dumpster diving like TikTok's Dumpster Diving Freegan, who describes herself as on a mission to expose food waste in the U.S. (via TikTok). On a recent trip to a Whole Foods she visits regularly to "shop" among the dumpsters (which she alleges are frequently filled to the brim with food waste), Freegan seems to have turned up what appears to be a supermarket refrigerator case's worth of meat, poultry, and vegan meat products, as well as freshly cut fruit, salad mixes, prepared guacamole, yogurt, and more (all in a dumpster outside the store, just to be clear).
"Everything had been thrown out on or before its best buy date," and nothing was recalled, Freegan claimed in the resulting TikTok video, in which she displays for her nearly 350,000 followers her haul of gorgeous, colorful organic and natural foods. "I found enough meat to feed an entire community," and everything was "super-cold" thanks to near-freezing outdoor temperatures. "I left so much more behind." Freegan further alleged that she found nothing to suggest any of the foods had even been discounted prior to being tossed. While we can't verify Freegan's claims, her TikTok following is fuming.
Another round of dumpster diving
With major food industry players such as Cracker Barrel and DoorDash launching food insecurity initiatives, there's no way around the fact that many Americans have trouble buying food due to lack of money and other resources (via Healthy People 2020). Ironically, even as the 2020 census results reveal that 30 million of the 249 million Americans who filled it the survey reported experiencing food insecurity (via CNN), the Environmental Protection Agency reports the U.S. discards nearly 40 million tons of food every year (via RTS) – an estimated 30 to 40% of its entire food supply.
Since July 2021, TikTok's Dumpster Diving Freegan has purportedly been exposing colossal food waste that she encounters along her travels. "This should be going to people who need it," Freegan argues in her first TikTok video. She was referring to a commercial dumpster full of allegedly non-expired food (via TikTok). Just this week, when Freegan showed her TikTok followers the enormous haul of foods she allegedly found in a Whole Foods dumpster (via TikTok), they were appalled.
"Remember, world hunger isn't because lack of food, it's because lack of proper distribution," one commenter declared. Another lamented, "This makes me so sad. Also, I question why I am still paying for food." User M found the alleged waste "outrageous." And TikTok influencer Carleigh Bodrug (@plantyou) commented, "This is infuriating but I'm so glad you found it."