I worked for an upscale hotel when I was 16.
After banquets all the leftover food went into dumpsters. I remember dumping in huge slabs of roast beef or lamb that was never uncovered or carved right from the oven.
They had those 5 gallon ice crem tubs. If the lid was removed and one scoop taken out into the dumpster it went.
What was screwy is we were allowed to eat as much food for free as we could muster while on the job but if you took it out of the dumpster or tried to take it home you would be fired.
I remember all the cooks, dishwashers wait staff and us busboys eating ice cream out on the loading dock at 1 am just before doing final cleaning and closing up.
It was great times.
a lot of the food though in restaurants has been out past it’s ‘safety guidelines’ for time and temperature- it’s been in the ‘danger zone’ for too long=- so they gotta throw it out- but yeah- most food was fine, and held in warming trays that kept them in the safe zone, and we could eat them too, but nope- couldn’t take them home-
Folks used to be able to get all the waste products from stores to bring home and feed hogs with- but i don’t think they even allow that anymore- The food could at least be thrown out for animals- but nope- they throw it in landfills- (Where soem animals do get soem i guess-)
Leftovers like that from Las Vegas casinos goes to a pig farm where they separate it and pressure cook the edibles as pig food. A few months later that ham they threw away is back on the table:)
I worked at the SU Carrier Dome in my junior & senior year of college in events production.
They would put on dinners inside the dome. One was 2200 people who all got prime rib. For the next week I ate left over prime rib. A heck of a lot better than 5 for $1 generic mac & cheese. Best $5/hr job I ever had.
I worked for the Omni corporation, upscale hotel, cottages, restaurants etc- and the amount of waste was staggering- We ate like kings while at work though- Everyone did- Some truly fine foods- I started working the morning shift, but quickly learned the best food was at night, so switched lol
Years ago my wife worked for a fancy hotel—and one of the employee benefits was that they encouraged all hotel employees to take home as much of the daily leftover food as they wanted—gave them plastic containers and bags to do it.
That was worth more than her pay—and the food was outstanding.
I have no clue whether they still do that.
(I was _not_ happy when she found another job. :-) )