Rotten Food and best before dates removal

[tescorank]

Love the way this is being sold to us under the save the planet banner, nothing about increased profits.

https://news.sky.com/story/waitrose-to-scrap-best-...
Waitrose to scrap 'best before' dates and urge shoppers to 'use their own judgement'


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[ZedLeg]

Either way it's a positive move imo, the level of waste built into the supermarket supply chain is ridiculous.

[Terminator X]

ZedLeg said:

Either way it's a positive move imo, the level of waste built into the supermarket supply chain is ridiculous.

Also buying in produce from around the world. We shop at Waitrose of course and pretty much nothing comes from within the UK.

TX.

[ambuletz]

this just means that you don't know how fresh the food is that you're buying. Whenever i go shopping ill buy whatever fruit/veg/meat has the furthest date on it. afew seconds of looking around makes a difference as sometimes the use by/expiry date can vary wildly as much as 2-7 days.

who wants to uknowlingly pick up some chicken with an expiry date of tomorrow (that's somehow avoided picking taken) when they could pick up something that has an expiry date of 7 days later? Most people will do a weekly shop, so somethings might sit for a day or 2.

[deckster]

ambuletz said:

this just means that you don't know how fresh the food is that you're buying. Whenever i go shopping ill buy whatever fruit/veg/meat has the furthest date on it. afew seconds of looking around makes a difference as sometimes the use by/expiry date can vary wildly as much as 2-7 days.

who wants to uknowlingly pick up some chicken with an expiry date of tomorrow (that's somehow avoided picking taken) when they could pick up something that has an expiry date of 7 days later? Most people will do a weekly shop, so somethings might sit for a day or 2.

I'm going to suggest this is exactly the behaviour they want to stop. Chances are that all the food on the shelf will be fine for a few days anyway regardless of what the date says, and taking dates off means that they don't get left with perfectly good food that is officially past it's best before date that they have to destroy.

[JagLover]

ambuletz said:

this just means that you don't know how fresh the food is that you're buying. Whenever i go shopping ill buy whatever fruit/veg/meat has the furthest date on it. afew seconds of looking around makes a difference as sometimes the use by/expiry date can vary wildly as much as 2-7 days.

who wants to uknowlingly pick up some chicken with an expiry date of tomorrow (that's somehow avoided picking taken) when they could pick up something that has an expiry date of 7 days later? Most people will do a weekly shop, so somethings might sit for a day or 2.

This

Use by dates can be very different for the same products on the same shelf. You also cannot tell by eye which is the freshest meat. It matters because things often have to last for a few days in the fridge before you cook with them.

[Cold]

Will the shop still have a system in place to remove potentially dangerous food from the shelves when the Best Before date is gone? I guess the stock is rotated via barcodes etc?

[Somewhatfoolish]

ambuletz said:

this just means that you don't know how fresh the food is that you're buying. Whenever i go shopping ill buy whatever fruit/veg/meat has the furthest date on it. afew seconds of looking around makes a difference as sometimes the use by/expiry date can vary wildly as much as 2-7 days.

who wants to uknowlingly pick up some chicken with an expiry date of tomorrow (that's somehow avoided picking taken) when they could pick up something that has an expiry date of 7 days later? Most people will do a weekly shop, so somethings might sit for a day or 2.

Protip: I have noticed that the foods still have coded use by dates on them (presumably so they know when to take them off the shelves) and you don't have to work at GCHQ to crack the codes...

[21TonyK]

It’s the removal of best before on fruit and veg.

[ZedLeg]

at the people that take this change to mean that supermarkets are going to start selling possibly unsafe meat.

As far as I know use by dates which is what signifies that food is unsafe are a legal requirement. best before dates aren't.

[boyse7en]

ambuletz said:

this just means that you don't know how fresh the food is that you're buying. Whenever i go shopping ill buy whatever fruit/veg/meat has the furthest date on it. afew seconds of looking around makes a difference as sometimes the use by/expiry date can vary wildly as much as 2-7 days.

who wants to uknowlingly pick up some chicken with an expiry date of tomorrow (that's somehow avoided picking taken) when they could pick up something that has an expiry date of 7 days later? Most people will do a weekly shop, so somethings might sit for a day or 2.

It's for fruit and veg, not chicken and meat products.

I have a friend who throws away anything once it gets to its use by date, which is ridiculous when you can easily look at a banana or tomatoes etc and see whether they are usable or not.
The amount of usable food thrown away is a disgrace

[Miocene]

21TonyK said:

It’s the removal of best before on fruit and veg.

This. It's removing Best Before dates, not getting rid of Use By dates, after which something could potentially become harmful.

[Sway]

ambuletz said:

this just means that you don't know how fresh the food is that you're buying. Whenever i go shopping ill buy whatever fruit/veg/meat has the furthest date on it. afew seconds of looking around makes a difference as sometimes the use by/expiry date can vary wildly as much as 2-7 days.

who wants to uknowlingly pick up some chicken with an expiry date of tomorrow (that's somehow avoided picking taken) when they could pick up something that has an expiry date of 7 days later? Most people will do a weekly shop, so somethings might sit for a day or 2.

For the fruit and veg we're talking about - it's likely all as fresh as each other.

I've worked in a fresh produce supplier. They'd get in a few containers at a time (or more!) of each item, then would spend a couple of weeks sorting/packing it into bags with differing BBDs depending on what day's order it was being done for.

It was all the same stuff...

[V8covin]

To my knowledge Lidl have never put any dates on their fresh fruit and veg...... much of which is clearly not very fresh at all

[dukeboy749r]

Terminator X said:

ZedLeg said:

Either way it's a positive move imo, the level of waste built into the supermarket supply chain is ridiculous.

Also buying in produce from around the world. We shop at Waitrose of course and pretty much nothing comes from within the UK.

TX.

I don't know whether this is taking the proverbial or a statement designed to reinforce their PHness

[Timothy Bucktu]

V8covin said:

To my knowledge Lidl have never put any dates on their fresh fruit and veg...... much of which is clearly not very fresh at all

Lidl/Aldi used to be quite good for fresh fruit and veg...but my god it's rubbish now. It's usually going nasty by the time you get home!

[Sway]

Timothy Bucktu said:

V8covin said:

To my knowledge Lidl have never put any dates on their fresh fruit and veg...... much of which is clearly not very fresh at all

Lidl/Aldi used to be quite good for fresh fruit and veg...but my god it's rubbish now. It's usually going nasty by the time you get home!

When I worked in the industry, they had some of the 'best' required product specifications (along with Waitrose/Ocado). The key difference, was they weren't fussed by every courgette being within 15mm length and 5mm diameter of each other - but in terms of actual quality, it had to be absolutely top drawer.

The costs were saved in reduced labour sorting/packing, and the packaging itself.

[SWoll]

boyse7en said:

ambuletz said:

this just means that you don't know how fresh the food is that you're buying. Whenever i go shopping ill buy whatever fruit/veg/meat has the furthest date on it. afew seconds of looking around makes a difference as sometimes the use by/expiry date can vary wildly as much as 2-7 days.

who wants to uknowlingly pick up some chicken with an expiry date of tomorrow (that's somehow avoided picking taken) when they could pick up something that has an expiry date of 7 days later? Most people will do a weekly shop, so somethings might sit for a day or 2.

It's for fruit and veg, not chicken and meat products.

I have a friend who throws away anything once it gets to its use by date, which is ridiculous when you can easily look at a banana or tomatoes etc and see whether they are usable or not.
The amount of usable food thrown away is a disgrace

Use by is a different thing, this is about best before dates which mean very little especially with fruit and veg. As per the article

Article said:

"Best before" dates are designed to show food quality rather than how safe it is eat, Waitrose said.

Whereas "use by" dates are given for safety and could result in food poisoning if ignored.

[Randy Winkman]

Hopefully this will also promote the old fashioned idea of people buying things when they actually need them rather than filling up the fridge once in a while. I appreciate that shopping opportunities are different across the UK, but my understanding is that there is now a greater availability of "local" supermarkets compared to 5-10 years ago.

[Sway]

Randy Winkman said:

Hopefully this will also promote the old fashioned idea of people buying things when they actually need them rather than filling up the fridge once in a while. I appreciate that shopping opportunities are different across the UK, but my understanding is that there is now a greater availability of "local" supermarkets compared to 5-10 years ago.

That just adds cost - and doesn't add anything in terms of freshness.

As mentioned, it's entirely likely for imported, low volume items that the same consignment would be being picked and packed from the stores by the supplier to the supermarket for weeks...