My Mum has carers 3xs a day. I visit and do her shopping out of my own money and buy her tempting food but it is expensive. The carers are throwing out food at the best before date and not at the use by date. I find totally good food in the bin which I would have taken home to give my family, I am struggling for money after caring for my Mum for years and only buy us cheap food but I know that Mum needs tempting and good nutrients. I have spoken to the carer and she said that they have to throw out the food and cannot even put it aside for me to take home. It is appalling the waste taking place, I even find rotting fruit that they haven't thrown out! The care company staff are very dictatorial, it is the third care company we have had due to mistakes leading to Mum having falls and worsening her dementia. Is this the normal rule, throw out food before the best before date. I try and take away food that will be thrown away before my next visit but its very difficult as some foods have a bbd close to the buying date and yet the use by date can be at least a week away if refrigerated. I feel as though we have been taken over by rules and regulations including her taking her T3 thyroid medication which I have to import as there is one manufacturer in the UK which charges the NHS a fortune, Mum has been taking T3 for years and yet when the carers take over they are not allowed to give non-prescription meds even though the NHS endocrinologist sent them a letter and the doctor has signed a MARS sheet. It has taken me over a year to get this sorted and finally last week they agreed to give it to Mum. The endocrinologist said that there would be far fewer people in care homes if they were given T3 and less with dementia. What is going on!! Is this correct with the best before date?
Carers Throwing out Food at Best Before Date
- Thread starter Dramlouie
- Start date
There has been a lot of media coverage about the food waste resulting from people confusing 'best before' and 'use by' dates. Indeed, at least one of the major supermarkets has started to remove best before dates from some fresh veg in an effort to cut food waste.
I would struggle to believe that the management of the care company would be unaware of this so it may be worth having a word with them.
I would struggle to believe that the management of the care company would be unaware of this so it may be worth having a word with them.
Before my parents went into care home, despite my sister and I regularly clearing out the fridge, there were all sorts of ghastly things in there! We used to leave notes for the carers about what to feed my parents (they came Sat and Sun lunchtimes as my sis and I did the other days) and they religiously got out the meals we'd specified but left all the dodgy looking stuff alone. I guess different companies have different rules. We often put ready meals in the fridge for the carers which had been frozen, so the use before dates bore no relation to the present date, if you see what I mean, and no-one ever commented on this ...
This is very annoying I know. However I am wondering why you are spending so much of your own money buying your mother's groceries. Are you sure that she is getting all the benefits she would be entitled to? Attendance Allowance at the higher rate would give at least £80 per week and is not means tested. This should easily be enough for mum's groceries. Might be a good idea to get a benefit check from Citizens Advice - or you could put her circumstances into an online benefit checker called Entitled To. I know when I was looking after mum a few years ago her income ( with Attendance Allowance, State Pension and Housing Benefit ) she had quite a reasonable income. I haven't got any suggestions about carers throwing out perfectly good food sorry. Best wishes.
I work a few hours a week for a care company and our rules are completely different to the ones your carers say they have. We are not allowed to throw out food without the permission of the client or their family. We always check the contents of the fridge and ask if we can get rid of food where the use by date has expired and will never cook a meal using food with expired use by dates. Best before dates are a different matter though. There are no rules to say we can’t use this as long as it seems ok.
Can I ask about the thyroid medication? What is T3? Why is it different to regular thyroxine? Just curious!
