Undercover Boss

Posted July 27th, 2010 in Ume's Interests | 2 Comments »

I watched a tv show “Undercover Boss” last night on channel 10. It’s the first time to watch this show (I think there’s one previous episode the other day) and yesterday boss was Seven Eleven’s CEO. He traveled around the country worked undercover in stores, bakeries, coffee outlets, in the distribution centre etc.

I thought it was a really interesting concept. Especially Seven Eleven is the company I used to work while I was a student in Japan, and my mum still works there. I emailed her as soon as I finished watching the tv show.

I know there are many many food waste 3 times per day at convenience stores (not only Seven Eleven) and it happens everyday nonstop. In Japan the shops throw away onigiri, bento, pasta… everything as soon as they are expired. I’m not sure about America, but in Japan each item has a sticker of “expiry time”. If there is a bento with an expiry sticker saying “15:00 22/Feb”, and if it’s 15:01, shop staff must throw it away in the bin. It’s the safety standard thing. But, of course, food doesn’t go bad immediately after the expiry time, they are still edible. But at the time I was in Japan, it was a company policy that any expired food must not be taken or eaten by shop staff. They must be thrown away.

I think it’s very good that this American CEO is considering to build up the charity process for the expired food. I just can’t stand watching the food which are still edible thrown away to the bin…

Japan should also consider the charity or do something about the waste – expired food – It could save people’s lives.