Tescos shop

[AliceMcK]

So I booked an online shop at the beginning of lockdown, it finally arrived yesterday evening. I was too tired and just put it away without checking anything, today I start going through the fresh food and with the exception of 2 packs of sausages everything fresh had today and tomorrow’s dates on it. I’ve had to throw almost everything away 😢

@Moonmelodies

Some Tesco stores don't put a best before date on fruit and veg, presumably to make people have to go back and buy more to replace the stuff they've had to bin because it hasn't lasted as long as the customer had hoped. Cunning business practice but terrible for food waste.

No...it's actually to make you buy the produce that's in front of you.

People think 'best before' means you can't use the food after that date.

If you don't know the expiration date of that cabbage, you'd but, based on the fact it looks fine,isn't wilting etc. But if that same cabbage said 'best before today'. You'd buy a different 'longer date' cabbage, forcing the perfectly fine cabbage to be thrown away.

@Moonmelodies

Not putting best before dates is reducing food waste not the other way round.

Not so, customer buys peppers with no date to use next Wednesday, they go rotten on the Monday, customer bins peppers.
Customer chooses peppers dated beyond next Tuesday, to use next Wednesday, customer uses peppers.

Eh?

Durability of things like peppers is more about how they're stored rather than a fixed date. As long as the peppers look good in the supermarket, you can be confident they'll last at least a week or two in the fridge. And if they start to look a bit wrinkly, you just use them in the next day or two, or chop them up and freeze them so they can be used in chilli etc.

I agree that in most cases, dates on fruit and veg is unhelpful and encourages food waste because stupid people see a date and throw perfectly good food away after, or in this case before, an arbitary date that means little.

I've bought fruit and veg that lasts for weeks after the date. A lot of it is stored for months before the date too - things like potatoes, carrots, apples, onions etc.

Wow lots of very angry comments.

Regardless of my reasons for not doing the shop myself, how much food I had in my freezer, my ability to cook and eat the food delivered. The point is I paid for food that had a guarantee of a life span, this was not delivered. That was the point of my post.

But just to clarify some details

I didn’t do the shop myself as I booked it at the beginning of lockdown. I have several health issues and I take an array of medication including immune suppressants, even if I was having a good day and physically up to doing a grocery shop myself, I don’t want to leave the house unless absolutely necessary. I was also being prepared if myself and my children were put into isolation, as we have twice already in the last 2 months. As I am on my own with them it would involve be taking them to the supermarket should this have happened.

Next food use by dates, some people are able to eat food past their use by dates or on them, I can’t, again due to health reasons.

As for the contents of my freezer, your assuming I have a big freezer and the capability to freeze huge amounts of food should I wish, not all of us have big houses and room for big freezers....

Wasting the food - what would you have me done, frame the stuff that could not be eaten? Even if I did know someone who would want the food, we are in lockdown and not supposed to be socialising with anyone else so how would I have given it them. For the record, I don’t know anyone who would have taken it.

As I’ve already stated Not all the food was thrown away I salvaged what I could.

Also tescos have confirmed that it was a picker problem as they have lots of new pickers and there have been lots of problems with them.

Oh come on, you don't need 'a big house' to have a fairly standard fridge freezer with room for a few meals worth of meat etc, most people have them in perfectly normal small to medium kitchens.

Even if I did know someone who would want the food, we are in lockdown and not supposed to be socialising with anyone else so how would I have given it them. For the record, I don’t know anyone who would have taken it.

Get them to collect it at door step and there's apps like olio to prevent food waste or could use local fb group to advertise it.

Wasting the food - what would you have me done, frame the stuff that could not be eaten?

You said your DH can eat stuff that's close to or on it's use by. Feed him that and have something different. Or as PPs suggested, cook it which will buy you an extra 3+ days to eat it.

I get the freezer space thing, the fridge freezer that came with my rented flat is very small (I think 3 foot high ish?), and the 'freezer' part is really more of an ice box. I really would have tried a bit harder to cook, make room in the freezer, or give it to DH rather than just throw it in the bin automatically though.

I'm going with they're taking the piss. That's the only thing that makes sense

gamerchick I’m not taking the piss. It really isn’t my job to feed other families, nor am I depriving any other family of food by throwing it away instead of eating it.

@emilyfrost

I'm going with they're taking the piss. That's the only thing that makes sense

gamerchick I’m not taking the piss. It really isn’t my job to feed other families, nor am I depriving any other family of food by throwing it away instead of eating it.

You sound like a really nice person @emilyfrost, I hope you don’t ever end up in a position to need some support and sympathy. I really don’t as you definitely wouldn’t deserve it.

When my freezer broke, I ended up with a load of food I couldn't salvage. Before it all defrosted I shoved a post on FB (immunocompromised so careful with dates) and a very grateful woman who had lost her job came and collected it all from the doorstep
Was gutted, had just done a massive shop but she got a load of Ben and Jerry's ice cream, chips, meat, veg...

Why do people put S on the end of supermarket names?

@BusterGonad

Why do people put S on the end of supermarket names?

Weird isn't it. I says Tesco's and Sainsbury's, but Asda and Aldi. There is no logic as to why

I work in dot.com and things are utterly crazy right now. We have to pick from what is on the shelves and with the stock piling and panic buying everyone is doing, that stock is severely depleted. They have practically doubled the number of delivery and click and collect slots available again and still aren’t meeting demand. We are recruiting a lot of new pickers but it takes time for them to get up to speed and learn the ins and outs of the job. The pick rate targets have been increased too so we are having to pick more and faster while negotiating the hordes of people in the shops.
We are supposed to not pick anything with that day’s date and there is an option to note that an item is close to it’s use by date, so the driver can warn the customer but unsurprisingly rushed, stressed, tired, inexperienced people make mistakes.
Having said that binning stuff that is 48 hours away from it’s use by date is just ridiculous. There is a fair margin built into these dates already.

BusterGonad

Why do people put S on the end of supermarket names?

Weird isn't it. I says Tesco's and Sainsbury's, but Asda and Aldi. There is no logic as to why

I do as well I was in the company of 1 woman once who kept saying asdas. It made the hackles go up a bit even though I do for Tesco and Sainsbury.

I don’t necessarily agree with the food being wasted but those posters giving op a hard time for complaining about this are not being reasonable IMO. Tesco shows the use by dates of products on the website and consistently sends things which have a much tighter date and “go off” the day after delivery. This isn’t ok, if you order a shop you order for a week most likely. I’ve had this and complained to Tesco who advise that the pickers are trained to shop as if for themselves and are supposed to give good used by dates but in reality then just shop from the front of the shelves and it’s not really good enough. They recognise this themselves as they always refund.

@AliceMcK

Deli chicken, fresh chicken pizza, duck in sauce, Thai chicken meals, deli ham, chicken thighs, steak (that went in the freezer) & pork mince.

Do you online shop much? Deli stuff always has a short shelf life as do the deli pizzas, ready meals are typically 4-5 days so I would get annoyed at that. I regularly eat things 3 day past use by and there's nothing wrong with them so you definitely could eat some of it. Anything vac packed will stay fresher basically. The most important thing is the sniff test (even if the date says ok I've had things off) and cooking properly especially pork and chicken. I do like rare steak, lamb, duck and raw fish but would never trust online shopping if I'm eating it like this as you can't be 100% sure the truck was cold enough and you have to be more careful selecting the fish especially (Morrison's fish counter are brilliant!)

I must admit I don't online shop much partly because of bad dates and substitutes, but I'm lucky Lidl is 5 mins away on foot so I do shop daily (shhh the covid police wont be happy)

Gamerchick Sainsbury's does have an S.

@BusterGonad

Gamerchick Sainsbury's does have an S.

It does since it renamed as Sainsbury's - it used to be J.Sainsbury and the stores had that on them

I’d ring - not acceptable to send food in the evening that expires that day as there is no time to use it. That’s why they reduce food on its expiry dates at the end of the day.

@Lovelydovey

I’d ring - not acceptable to send food in the evening that expires that day as there is no time to use it. That’s why they reduce food on its expiry dates at the end of the day.

Nothing expired that day!