Maria Langer (@mlanger ) asks a great question regarding "Free Fridges" and Post-Scarcity Mutual Aid Food Distribution:

Tinker ☀️

Original Question and Thread: https://mastodon.world/@mlanger/113764511068543932

Question: "What worries me more is people putting tainted food into it. There are a lot of seriously fucked up people in this world. I'm old enough to remember the tainted Tylenol bottles that led to everything being safety sealed today. One nut who has it in for poor people can do a lot of damage."

Awesome question!

The short answer is THIS HAPPENS ALL THE TIME!!! OH NOOOO!!!

But not for the *reasons* you think.

People put in food that is past its "best use by" date all the time. In fact, food rescue is all about getting food that would otherwise be thrown out, past the "use by" date (but still good), sorting out which food is still good, and using that!

Heck, in traditional charity Food Bank / Food Pantry distributions, we get a pallet of fresh grapefruits and 10% will have "natural penicillin" (yuck!) or gets squashed in transit, and can't be given out. That's tainted food. We just set it aside and compost or throw it out.

I'll do you one better! Do you ever find molded tainted food in your grocery store? Of course you do. Do you ever hear about food recalls after people have gotten sick from listeria or salmonella from a corporate food manufacturer? Of course you do. Have you ever gotten food poisoning from a capitalist restaurant? Yeah, we all have.

We try to minimize it, but our current system is by no means perfect in keeping out "tainted food'. Heck... how many corporate manufacturers INTENTIONALLY SELL US tainted food just for profit? All. The. Freaking. Time.

So...

How we deal with this in our Free Fridges?

Twice a day, we have a cleaning and maintenance shift. It usually takes about ten minutes. Whoever has that time slot goes through and cleans up any spilt food (I had some busted eggs this week). We go through the food in the fridge and pantry and throw out anything that looks bad. The person cleans up trash and boxes , etc.

Also, just like you check your food at the grocery store before you buy it (go through that dozen eggs to make sure none are cracked... and put back the ones that are cracked to be taken care of by the grocery staff), when you take from the free fridge, you do the same. You conduct due diligence. Check for discoloration, broken seals, bad smells, mold, etc. Just like normal.

So far as someone putting in food that is intentionally or maliciously poisoned? That very rarely happens if ever. For one, a lot of the food is sealed. For fresh fruit, poisoning often destroys it. For home cooked food, the folks that do that often do it in bulk and label it - so you know who is doing it. If they poison it, they get arrested... just like normal... Anything unlabeled or generally suspicious is not taken by folks first off and is thrown away when noticed.

This is like razors in halloween candy. It's just not an issue.

#mutualAid #solarPunk #freeFridge #postScarcity

A More Honest Dystopia

@tinker @mlanger this was my question. not so much the intentional contamination though; keeping food safe requires a lot of attention. temperature and time are important factors and bacteria are silent killers. often, a spoiled item wont give any indication (smell or visual) and the only thing you have to go on is time and temp.

the two maintenance shifts are work, but effective. congratulations on making this happen, and safely. and for sharing these q&a

Tinker ☀️

@h2onolan - Yeah absolutely!

And food safety is INCREDIBLY important.

I want to feed people. I do not want to make people sick.

(Somewhat ironically, our current system of for-profit food - especially in places that don't have working regulations like the US - often makes people very sick because the profit motive allows for it).

So your concerns are valid and should be PRIORITIZED.

We have thermometers on the fridges to ensure cold levels, we have safety standards regarding food contributions, we monitor twice a day and throw out anything that doesn't meet those standards. The community also checks and rejects items, etc.

Shannon Clark

@tinker @h2onolan here in California a new law in 2026 will help

It bans the use of “Sell by” labels that are only used by grocery stores to rotate food and have no actual indication of when the food is likely less tasty or unsafe to eat (but consumers assume it means that and throw away a lot of foods that are likely still safe to eat)

Instead in CA a “best if used by” label can be used for a quality indication while a “use by” label indicates food safety

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-12-04/california-bans-sell-by-dates-what-you-need-to-know-about-food-labels#:~:text=The%20new%20law%20bans%20food,”%20and%20“Use%20by.”&text=A%20new%20California%20law%20further,rotate%20stock%2C%20will%20be%20banned.

Shannon Clark

@tinker @h2onolan since complying with the law will require grocery stores and food companies to make a lot of changes across their supply chains my guess is consumers in other states will also benefit from greater standardization as a result of CA’s law. A Federal standard would be even better but guessing that’s unlikely in the next four years.

(My dad was a PhD food scientist who spent decades designing food processes - he complained frequently about bad labeling and deceptive dates)