M&S use buy dates - waht is the date format

[meakin]

My MIL brought round 2 frozen dinners and asked if we wanted them. I'm used to her bringing random stuff round for no reason and prefer to just say ok and bin the odder things later to keep the peace. Anyway, i noticed these frozen dinners have no year on them. It just says 08 APR on one and 07 APR on the other does this mean she has really brought round food from 4 odd years ago rather than bin it herself or does it mean ok until the 8th of April next year? She also brought round a huge packet of jammie dodgers which were 'sealed' using a memorial poppy pin so presumably they have been open since November last year...

[overmydeadbody]

Oh gosh.

Frozen food is only required to carry a month and year BBE on it, so it looks like she has brought round very old food!

Frozen ready meal guidelines state that the BBE (best before end) date should be between 6 and 12 months from manufacture (I used to work in the frozen food industry)

08 APR means April 2008

)& APR means April 2007

Frozen food doesn't go off, as in bad and rotten, it's just that the quality diminishes the longer it is stored frozen, so for example veg is more likely to be soggy when defrosted if kept frozen for too long, and food can dry out and suffer freezer burn.

Just bin it or feed it to the dog or something.

[meakin]

Ah right omdb, I was just so surprised that I wanted to give her the benifit of the doubt. I'll add that to my list of things not to do when i am old - try to give away food that is only fit for the bin.