Some people are getting worked up into a considerable lather following the news that the Avon Mead branch of doughnut chain Krispy Kreme dumped a “mountain” of doughnuts outside the shop. Someone called Chris Clewes said he was “flabbergasted” at the sight of the unsold doughnuts, meaning that his gast had never been so flabbered, as the late comedian Frankie Howerd put it.
There was a reason why so many doughnuts were piled up at the store. It was not because people had finally seen sense and realised that the actual product comprised of sugar, sugar and then some more sugar, creating a product that was probably not that good for you. In fact, it was because Krispy Kreme’s drivers couldn’t access the recycling plant where they are normally dumped and turned into doughnuts. (This is just a guess but I can’t imagine what else you could turn them into.)
I do not speak from experience about Krispy Kreme’s products because I have never sampled any of them, although I do know that if one night I succumb, the Avon Mead branch is a 24/7 operation. I can even have one for breakfast. The thought, I have to say, does not appeal to me.
I confess that I have great admiration for the charity FoodCycle which collects surplus and unwanted food and makes meals out of them. When many people are struggling to feed themselves this aim is admirable, albeit a somewhat deplorable snapshot of modern Britain, but their spokesperson really should have engaged brain before saying this: “We’re getting all of this food that’s deemed waste but it’s not waste, it’s food and should be eaten. I would like to see Krispy Kreme working with charities to redistribute this food.”
Now it must be bad enough to be in a position where you cannot afford to eat, but I do not see the answer to starvation being a sackful of ‘Lotus Caramelised Biscoffs’ and ‘Chocolate Sprinkles.’ (Yes, I had to look these up on the company’s website.) We are facing an epidemic of obesity and diabetes in this country and there are many people who are calling for a sugar tax in order to stop it or slow it down. Can you imagine telling someone who cannot afford to feed their family that they’ve run out of food bank parcels “but don’t worry, you can have a sack of stale doughnuts.”
The good news for those of you who are fretting about the terrible waste of doughnuts is that Krispy Kreme has now moved to ensure that from this weekend onwards that their drivers can now dump the unwanted doughnuts at the recycling plant and they will no longer clutter up the view of, well, Krispy Kreme.
I have come up with a far better solution, though. How about not baking quite so many?
