A recent survey by the Food Standards Agency (F.S.A.) this November found that as many as a third of consumers had eaten food past the expiration date and a quarter ate their food cold because they could not afford to cook it in Britain. Another worrying problem is a growing number of people turning off their fridges to save energy. All this means an increased risk of food poison cases.
The doorbell of our apartment in Moscow was rung relentlessly and loudly. It was almost as unpleasant as a dentist's drill. It sounded like either a drunk person or a desperate call for help. When I opened it, in rushed Vladimir a homeless man who plead me to call an ambulance. He complained of great stomach pain. My wife panicked and thought Vladimir was dangerous but I had known Vlad was harmless and simply needed urgent help.
Instead of calling for an ambulance some people would have called the police. {He seemed distraught—perhaps he would seem dangerous to some. However, Vladimir was a former lab assistant who had left Ukraine for Moscow and was a rather bookish and eccentric man you might mistake for being an academic. He was always asking questions about ancient culture, languages and the Celts. He dreamed of doing some academic project and would attend the odd lecture or linger around libraries.} He did not drink or smoke. But this time he looked as if he had come down with food poison.
Well I called for an ambulance, and I'm glad to say it came and picked him up. This time the ambulance staff were polite and did not ask whether the person had been drinking or had medical insurance. They took him away and placed him in hospital. For some reason ambulance drivers in Moscow are more likely to be responsive if a foreigner calls them up.
I was not that surprised at hearing how Vladimir had gotten food poison. Once he showed me a box of dairy products which a charity had given him. But where could he put all this? He had no access to a fridge. They would quickly go off. What charity in their right mind would give away dairy food items to a homeless person? Did they know Vladimir was homeless? But it is not just homeless people who are more exposed to food which might be off but poor people or old people who struggle to read the small labels on food items indicating the expiration dates.
Food past the sell time dates is a common problem in Moscow. Just a day ago I dropped into some local supermarket to buy milk and I noticed practically all the cartons and bottles of milk were past their expiration date.
I had to go to a neighboring supermarket to buy up-to-date milk. In other supermarkets you will notice that all those out of date items come at a heavy discount. The only catch is you are risking your health. And many poor Russians as well as British are prepared to take a risk and buy this food. As long as it is not too past the sell-down date.
I once came across a vendor selling cheap fruit and vegetables on the street. He made a living from selling old fruit and vegetables which supermarkets disposed of because they could no longer sell them. He sold them at a cheaper rate than in the shops but he was always trying to sell as much as possible. It was in vain to tell him that I could not gorge down this fruit so quickly or that I lacked a big family to feed. I found that the next day all this food was completely off. I had to get rid of all this and I stopped buying it. I saw no point in risking my health and it turned out to be more expensive paying for this fruit because it was not long lasting at all.
You'd save more money buying stuff from a supermarket.
Then when I did return to the old supermarket I found even the prices of the vegetables and fruit were cheaper than what was being sold by this guy on the streets. My colleagues also had problems buying 'fresh fruit' at some street markets. They were often sold out of date fruit. They never returned to those vendors.
Sad as it is, but some people will ruthlessly sell their food items even if it potentially harms the health of those customers.
It seems that a growing number of British people are also playing Russian roulette with their health. A recent survey in Britain by the F.S.A. this November, found that 1/3 of consumers had eaten food products past their use by date because they could not afford to buy more food and 1/4 ate their food cold as they could not afford to cook it. Almost one in five turned off their fridge or freezer to save money on electricity. Another finding is that 30% of people skipped a meal or ate smaller meals as they lacked sufficient money to buy food. As many as 17% stated they had used a food bank in the past month.
Emily Miles an executive of the F.S.A. warned, "It is not a good idea to turn off the fridge or eat food past its use as these things can lead to a higher risk of becoming ill with food poisoning."
The F.S.A. estimates that as many as 2.4 million food borne diseases can arise each year—leading to thousands of people receiving hospital treatment.
Doing the shopping can't always be done casually. Many people purchase out of date items because they are in a hurry and work long hours. Shopping is also a tedious chore which they want to briefly get over and done with.
If it takes people with homes some effort and care to do shopping then it is not difficult to imagine the enormous time homeless people spend on struggling to find access to decent food, a place to wash their clothes, a place to lie down to sleep without unwanted attention and then to do a job they might well have.
Food insecurity of any kind ought to be ended as quickly as possible. By food security we don't just mean affordable access to a reasonable amount of food but also healthy and nutritious food. We don't need the addictive junk food which people are tempted to buy because it is relatively cheap, tasty and momentary cuts stress.
People deserve a better and decent deal!