Whole Foods Dumpster Diver Scores "Enough Meat To Feed Entire Community"

Update, December 14, 2021: Remember that TikToker who went viral in October after scoring a grand's worth of packaged food? She's back at it—and this time, she's rocking a major meat haul. Newsweek reports that our old friend, who goes by Dumpster Diving Freegan on TikTok, recently posted a new video after rummaging through a dumpster at a Whole Foods location. The video appears to highlight the same Whole Foods that the TikToker criticized back in October.

In the clip, which has generated around 2.6 million views, the TikToker shows pile upon pile of discarded food, including a whole turkey and countless packages of raw meat. "Last night, I found enough meat to feed an entire community," the TikToker says in the video. "I found everything from organic chicken and beef to Beyond Meat."

Personally, I'd be reluctant to claim dumpster meat, regardless of its best-by day. Still, the TikToker insists that the meat would be safe to consume. "It was 33 degrees Fahrenheit outside, so everything here was still super cold and had been recently tossed," she said. "Everything had been thrown out on or before its best-by date, and as we know, best-by dates are not hard rules and everything was still good to consume." All my best to Dumpster Diving Freegan, but I think I'll pass on this one.

Original post, October 21, 2021: You may not spend much time thinking about the food waste associated with the grocery industry, particularly if you've never worked in said industry. To the average consumer, grocery store shelves seem to stay magically stocked with the freshest products. But the truth is that uneaten food gets tossed with startling regularity—even if it's nowhere near its expiration date. Case in point: a TikToker recently went on a Whole Foods dumpster dive and surfaced with around $1,000 in perfectly edible packaged food.

The New York Post reports that the TikToker, who goes by Dumpster Diving Freegan on the app, filmed herself rummaging through a few dumpsters at her local Whole Foods store. She found all kinds of goodies, including around 100 units of packaged bread and bakery items. If the TikToker is to be believed, her haul resulted from just one day's worth of waste—and she claims that all of the food was packaged, unopened, and totally edible.

"And the worst part is, none of this stuff was expired," the TikToker said in the video. "Everything that I found was at least two days before its 'best by' date and could have easily been donated, frozen, or given to people who needed it."

The dumpster diving effort was less of a leisure activity and more of a public service project; the TikToker also says she donated 90% of the items to a local food bank after posting the video."The video was to show what kind of unnecessary waste is normal for grocery stores," the TikToker told the Daily Mail. "Most grocery stores have the same kind of waste that is shown in the video I posted, but many are not able to donate because they do not have a non-profit that can pick up their donations." Suit up, lads—I'm in the mood for a lunchtime dive.