I hate wasting food. I really, really hate it. And it really sticks in my craw to see the amount of food that is thrown away in the US. Sometimes it is due to people just buying more than they can eat but at other times it seem just willful. For example, I am appalled by people and events that go out of their way to waste food, such as those contests involving butter sculptures and food eating contests and those all-you-can-eat buffets that seem to be designed to induce people to eat more than they would normally do.

On the latest episode of Last Week Tonight John Oliver looks at the criminal waste of food that takes place and explodes some of the myths that help perpetuate it, such as the ‘sell by’ and ‘use by’ dates on products and the idea that you can be sued if donated food turns out to cause someone to get sick.