M&S rotten fruit now no BBF date

[OnTheBoardwalk]

I, like every else no doubt, have always taken best before dates for what they are. You see the date, have a sniff then crack on

since M&S have taken the dates off I’ve noticed all my fruit shop has been rotten and end of life. I had a delivery Saturday of 4 apples that usually last forever however they were rotten round the stem today. I've no idea when they were packaged up

i'm going to not buy M&S fruit/veg due to this latest initiative and go back to my own smell tests on BBF dates from other suppliers. Much less waste

is it just me?

do what i do check that there are other box's underneath and if they have pick from there they should be fresher

They probably are! I bought was given them ages ago, but I have been eating them slowly and they show no sign of going off. Yet. There is just one left out of four.

They were free with my Sparks card.

@abcd4321 have you cracked the code then? Can it be as simple as that? I have no other unreduced M&S fruit in the fridge to check.

Yes! I'm glad it's not just me!
I'm also an Ocado customer.
I had to throw away a box of nectarines. All rotten the same day they were delivered.
I actually wrote to ocado to complain.

I saw in ASDA strawberries which were mouldy in the reduced section!

I bought frozen vegetables as the fresh ones weren't lasting at all. Broccoli and cauliflower mix. We thought it was good.

The Pink Lady apples I had delivered by Sainsbury's last week were soft and inedible within a couple of days. No use by date. And they're really expensive!

DH bought a pack of bananas (don’t get me started on my views on bananas in a plastic bag 🙄) and I’ve just had to throw 3 away this morning.

normally if I don’t manage to eat bananas by the time they turn a little I make oat cookies with them but these were beyond salvaging. I hate throwing away food

Ocaso do it too OP so I'm afraid you're still getting dateless F&V!

Same with M&S grapes, never once went mouldy, recently thrown two packs away

This is not a good move, you cannot sniff or feel prepackaged fruit and veg

This is so irritating. Just because some people take it literally and chuck good food away the rest of us lose useful info to reduce our own food waste. I have literally never thrown fruit or veg out based on a use by date. I do, however, use them to work out what food to select to buy and then what order to use at home. Couldn't they just have changed the system to date packaged, or a date until which they were guaranteed fresh? I can't imagine it's making stock control in store easy either. Imo it runs the risk of being a well-meaning idea which achieves the exact opposite of what it sets out to do (or at least says it sets out to do).

It's very annoying; I think the only solution is to complain every time. I was looking at some onions in the fridge and I realised I couldn't tell which were the 'new' ones because they had a cheery message from sainsbury's where the date should be. "No date helps reduce food waste!" Well, actually, no, no date means I don't know which to use first, which creates more food waste!

i totally agree it’s frustrating. I’ve never got rid of fruit/veg solely on use by date, just use common sense. However, I’m now throwing away more fruit and veg than before the change.

How on earth are you supposed to do a sniff test on milk? Isn’t it sealed? Also, if you get a mouldy bit of fruit, you’d just throw it away, but you might use slightly off milk before you realised.
It sounds like a handy way of supermarkets handing the responsibility of disposing of old food to their customers AND making them pay for the privilege.
I always take back any fruit and veg that’s mouldy, I suggest you do the same thing as they might stop putting old stuff on the shelf if they know people will come back with it.

I might stop having fruit and veg in my online shop, I do a top up shop anyway so will just get it then when I can inspect it more

By the time the sniff test tells you something is past it it has become food waste. Which is what we are supposed to be avoiding, and a lot if us were by using the dates as a point of information. It's very short sighted and counter productive.

Yes rotting fruit and veg seems to be the new normal, I shop in Tesco and it’s no better. Tomatoes and cucumbers particularly but also spuds that have black bits running through them even when you cut them open.

Pretty obvious why this is happening.

Does anyone know what is behind this really? It's not to do with food waste as the big supermarkets have never cared before.
Is it longer/slower supply chains? I bought some strawberries from Sainsburys at weekend they looked fine but the next day they had gone to sort of mush like they had been flash frozen and they tasted of nothing.
It feels like we are being intentionally sold rotten fruit and veg instead of being honest and saying we cant supply fresh apples from X anymore.
anyone work behind the scenes?

Also it's the same with milk, we have stopped buying 2 bottles of 4 pints and are buying one at a time which is a faff but the second bottle was becoming yoghurt mid week.

Same issue with our local Waitrose - had to throw away blueberries and strawberries on regular basis (and I shop in store) really disappointing and feels like it is a good pr stunt for supermarkets - they throw away less but in reality, same waste occurs but the financial burden is on individuals. And the planet is no better from that.

Re the gala apples that don’t taste good - these may not be ‘in-season’ so either they have been in cold store for a long time and are losing flavour, or they haven’t had time to mature yet if they are this years crop. I’d need to google that variety to find out. I’ve found the same recently with Braeburn apples, switched to sainsburies best of British because assumed they’d be in season. They are very nice, sweeter than Braeburn but crunchy too.

As pp said the supermarkets are getting their customers to deal with waste and pay for the privilege. Still, every little helps, eh?
Let's not even get started on their profiteering.

yes, I've noticed it too. Sainsbury's has also got rid of best before dates on some items. It means you can't even look for later dated ones, let alone ones on sale, and blueberries have gone moldy by the next morning, and avocados within a day (despite seeming not quite ripe when I bought them). It has actually increased food waste for me, especially as I live on my own and need things to last more than just a couple of days as one person can't eat things that fast!!

I know that it's supposed to stop people throwing away good food at the best before date just because the date says so. But in the end, I have to throw away more stuff, because it's so short-lived that I don't even get to use it. Really hate this policy, as the supermarkets are just using it to their advantages to get rid of short-dated stuff instead. It does nothing but increase food waste, and so it is worse for the environment in the end ,whereas managing their stock better and/or encouraging people to check rather than just use the date would be more helpful.

Oh that’s why my apples keep going mouldy after a day or two when they never used to!