What do they do with leftover canteen food?

[CatInASuit]

It was quiet in the canteen today, but a lot of food was waiting to be served.

What happens to canteen food if it is not served that day?

[What Exit?]

We don't have canteens around here. Is this where the food is already prepared and you just pick it up to eat, "All you can eat Buffet style" or is this cafeteria style with prepared food and the server give you what you want and it is rung up at the end?

I know it varies by business and location though. Many places have "Meals on Wheels"/Food Banks type organizations pick up the food after closing to be distributed to the needy. This is semi-common is large cities like NYC.

Many place just include waste into their pricing scheme.

Many place let employees take home the excess food at either a steep discount or even free.

There are also specific reuse by different places. The Wendy's Hamburger chain uses the excess burger patties for the chili. They cook up the patties on demand but to keep up at rush hours like lunch and dinner they load the grill and the extras go into the chili patty bucket. These are then dated and refrigerated/frozen to be used later in the week. The produce is tossed in the trash. The handful of leftover fries are also trashed. Overall a fairly efficient model. All this was as of 25 years ago though.

I know many baked goods get sold the next morning as Day-Old at a deep discount at some places.

[jali]

I remember buying Boston Chicken (the old name) at about 90% off near closing time. I bought about 5 or 6 and froze a couple and made chicken salad with others.

[tunaman]

We don't have canteens around here.

Of course we do. The OP appears to be in the UK, and "canteen" is the British term for "cafeteria", especially in an institutional setting, such as an office or school. British office workers, for instance, would "go to the canteen" for lunch, not "go to the cafeteria".

As to the OP... I don't know. I expect some food is saved to be served the next day, or reused as ingredients in the following day's food (leftover veggies on Tuesday = vegetable soup on Wednesday). Of course, this would all depend on the policy of the individual canteen.

[CatInASuit]

We don't have canteens around here.

Of course we do. The OP appears to be in the UK, and "canteen" is the British term for "cafeteria", especially in an institutional setting, such as an office or school. British office workers, for instance, would "go to the canteen" for lunch, not "go to the cafeteria".

As to the OP... I don't know. I expect some food is saved to be served the next day, or reused as ingredients in the following day's food (leftover veggies on Tuesday = vegetable soup on Wednesday). Of course, this would all depend on the policy of the individual canteen.

Aah, a clever person who speaks English. Top show old bean.

For us the friday curry always seems to be a mix of the previous days meat and veggie curry. Our leftover vegetables ends up in pies rather than soup.

[Peeta Mellark]

Yeah, I imagine a lot of it gets recycled as much as possible into new dishes. Once it's gone completely past it's usability, it'll depend on what the policy at that particular establishment is. I worked at a sandwich shop once that sent anything about to expire home with employees. Mm. So many sandwiches. So, so many.