Discarded lists give collector food for thought

7:28am Monday 30th January 2006

It all started for Scott Allsop the day he found a garish, pink note with the words Coco Pops scribbled on it.

For nearly 12 months Scott has been indulging his passion for collecting discarded shopping lists, until a fortnight ago he decided to take it a step forward and only buy and eat the items he found written on paper abandoned in shopping trolleys.

The obsession began last Easter when Scott, 24, from Raynes Park, spotted the pink Post-it note.

"I had a laugh about it with my girlfriend Alison and that was the end of it, but on my next visit to Tesco I felt compelled to take another list I saw abandoned in a trolley," he said.

Scott now has more than 250 lists on his website, www.redhotscott.co.uk, each of which has received his psychoanalysis.

"One can derive an amazing amount of information from such lists; eating habits, grammatical prowess, and moods", he said.

As with any serious collector there are rules to follow: lists must be found by Scott and he "never takes them from a live trolley", that is one still in use. Scott is also mindful of "planted lists". By this he mainly refers to the pupils he teaches at a Guildford school who have cottoned on to his antics.

They have been leaving spoof lists for him to find. Unfortunately for them, their underestimation of Scott's observational skills - they use school text book paper - means these fakes are weeded out.

Currently, Scott has embarked on a two week extra-curricular experiment to only eat food he finds on the lists. This curious social experiment also comes with rules.

When a list is found, all the food upon it must be bought and eaten before a new one is obtained. Scott also employs what he calls his "ready steady cook" rule in that he can use kitchen basics such as salt, oil and herbs to prepare his randomly concocted meals.

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