Ex-Trader Joe’s exec to open expired-food store

The former president of Trader Joe's has found a solution to the billions of dollars of food thrown out every year by American consumers: he's going to sell it.

Having overseen the popular American supermarket from 2006 to 2008, Doug Rauch knows first-hand just how misleading the "use by" labels on packaged foods can be for consumers.

As TIME reported last week, almost 90 per cent of Americans believe the expiration date on foods refers to the day the product is no longer safe to eat, when in reality those dates are tools for retailers, indicating when foods are at peak freshness, not when they become unsafe for consumption.

To reduce the $165 billion worth of food thrown out by consumers annually, Rauch is launching an expired-food store which will prepare healthy meals from foods that are still safe to eat but have passed their "use by" date. The meals will be sold at discounted prices and aimed at lower-class families.

"It's kind of a hybrid between a grocery store and a restaurant, if you would, because primarily it's going to take this food in, prep it, cook it [for] what I call speed-scratch cooking," Rauch tells NPR. "But the idea is to offer this at prices that compete with fast food."

The store, called the Daily Table, will launch in the working-class Boston neighbourhood of Dorchester next year, and will hopefully take off across the country.

The idea isn't an entirely novel one — Rauch points out that some food banks have been doing this for years, using "expired" ingredients to prepare meals for the needy — but the Daily Table is the first proposed store of its kind.

"This is about trying to tackle a very large social challenge we have that is going to create a health care tsunami in cost if we don't do something about it. I don't regard Daily Table as the only solution — there are wonderful innovative ideas out there — but I certainly think it is part of and is an innovative approach to trying to find our way to a solution," Rauch tells NPR.

While some skeptics aren't completely convinced that people will be eager to chow down on "expired foods," the Daily Table might end up being an important option for families living in America's "food deserts."

Would you shop at an expired-food store?