The Unfortunate Thing That Happens To Leftovers At Raising Cane's

Unfortunately, food waste has become a big deal in the U.S. According to Recycle Track Systems (RTS) — a company that offers waste, recycling, and sustainability services to businesses — the United States discards more food than any country in the world. That's 120 billion pounds every year, or about 325 pounds of waste per person.

While some restaurants and grocery stores have taken steps to reduce food waste, others seem to be behind on this effort. Raising Cane's — one of Chick-fil-A's primary competitors — looks to be a bit wasteful when it comes to leftover food, at least if you're to believe current and former employees posting to Reddit. While Chick-fil-A donates leftover food at the end of each day to local organization, with employees even packaging the extra food before giving it away, that doesn't seem to be the case at Raising Cane's.

In the last year, Redditors have made comments about the amount of chicken tenders, french fries, and toast the chain throws away on a daily basis. One Redditor claimed, "I've seen huge bags of chicken fingers that go into the garbage because the breading isn't per company standards." And it seems that's just the beginning of some of the food waste issues at Raising Cane's.

Keep in mind Raising Cane's makes everything fresh to order. One employee posted to Reddit that the waste is a result of Raising Cane's strict standards related to food safety. "Chicken can only be served if it's less than six minutes old and fries are only three [minutes]. We have more than 60 [pounds] of waste per day," they stated. Another Redditor mentioned working at Cane's for years and claimed the chain wastes at least 20 pounds of food a day. "I've always hated throwing perfectly good chicken fingers away just because they were shaped weird, too bent, too short, too much breading coming off," they said.

Some commenters explained it's a food safety issue as the chicken can only sit out for so long before it becomes unhealthy to eat — a risk factor that could bring potential litigation. It seems like a process tweak could potentially fix this issue, as a former Chick-fil-A employee noted the chain froze food for donation that had been sitting out no longer than 20 to 30 minutes.

All of that said, according to its website, one of Raising Cane's six areas of focus is "feeding the hungry." The chain claims it works with local food banks and organizations to provide meals and goods for those in need. Interested organizations can submit a request through its website. So Raising Cane's does have a philanthropic arm related to food donations somewhere in its operations. But the recurring and alleged issues of food waste mentioned all over Reddit definitely raise some questions.