Here's What Popeyes Does With Its Leftover Food At The End Of Every Day

When we covered KFC's leftover chicken policy, it really got us thinking about some of the chicken chain's (many) competitors and whether they have similar strategies for managing waste. While KFC proudly and publicly touts its Harvest Program, through which food-safe leftover chicken is distributed to food pantries across America, rival Popeyes appears to have no official communication on its corporate policy for handling waste. However, a peek at Reddit — which, to be clear, is not an official mouthpiece for Popeyes and which hosts claims that can't be verified — seems to indicate that most leftover food is thrown away.

One alleged employee bemoaned the waste: "i work at a popeyes and SO MUCH food goes to waste!! but the managers are so strict about throwing away every single thing at the end of the day." On another thread, a secondhand account sounded pretty similar: "one of my best friends worked at popeyes for a long time. she said they had to throw away all the leftover food at the end of their shift and weren't allowed to take any." 

On a thread that started about KFC's policies, another self-professed employee shared a similar story: "I used to work at Popeyes [...] majority of the time [leftovers] do really just get thrown out. I would drag a big garbage bag/bin full of chicken, sides, and whatever that didn't get sold and it really felt like such a waste." This last commenter did mention that some chicken at their location got recycled into gravy and that employees occasionally were allowed to take food home at certain managers' discretion. 

Popeyes's chicken is delicious, partially due to the oil it's fried in. The chain has grown to be so popular, in fact, that you can even buy Popeyes sauces at the grocery store. If the thought of massive food waste makes you see red and reconsider your patronage, hold up a second. It sounds, on paper, like Popeyes (and other restaurants that toss food) should hand out that sustenance to people dealing with food insecurity. It should at least let employees have first dibs on it ... right? Throwing out perfectly good food that's simply past its holding time may seem like an ethical disaster, but there are reasons behind the strategy. You may not agree with them, but it's not a decision made blindly.

First of all, there are rules involved in the handling of hot leftovers meant for donation (as per the USDA), and not every restaurant is capable of meeting them. In fact, many food pantries don't accept perishable donations, period. Restaurants may also fear legal action from people made sick by expired food. 

Secondly, as discussed on Reddit, the scruples of minimum-wage employees also have to be taken into account. If employees were given carte blanche to take food home at the end of every shift, some might start "accidentally" cooking too much around closing time and carry out a small feast. In short, this act of generosity might just lead to more waste. It's a ruthless calculus, to be sure, but we get where big businesses are coming from.