To not give a flying fish.....

[cheekeymonkey]

That the government have spent god knows how much money in deciding to remove 'sell by' dates off perishable goods.
Don't they think us morons can tell the difference between a 'sell by' and a 'use by' date?
Personally I use the rule of thumb of if it's green and has development it's own flora and forna - don't eat it.
I understand they need to cut down the amount of food thrown away each month by people that cannot make their own decisionbut surely they would be better off banning 'buy 1 get 100 free' offers?

I'm not sure if Iunderstand it right, but doesn't removing sell-by not reduce food thrown away by individuals but reduce the amount of food thrown away by businesses? Businesses are not allowed to make judgements based on flora and fauna, if they have written a sell-by date they have to stick with it.

Could be right there trillian. Bet that's the first time someone has said that to you today?

I know it's ridiculous.

I completely understand the difference between use by, best before and display until.

Display until = when the shops can, er, display it until
Best before = the food will taste better, e.g. bread will be fresher, before this date
Use by = use the product by this date, or don't.

I tend to use my common sense.

Back in the day I got at least one "I agree with Trillian" a week...

I agree with trillian, better?

:o

Weird to say that on your own thread though...

It's not you that is "throwing away £50 of food a month" then summer.

You'd think people knew the difference, but it's only recently that I've managed to get my DH to understand the difference between "Use By" and "Best Before".

But removing the "Sell By" will at least reduce some confusion I suppose...

YABU. Flying fish are awesome.

No forgot to mention that the news bulletin was reporting that the measure was to stop consumers throwing away on average £50 worth of food a month. Therefore they appear to be stating that consumers are incapable of reading and understanding plain English. IYSWIM?

amuminscotland, best not to let SOME men near perishables.
slave, you are of course right, flying fish ARE awesome, that's why I'm not giving one. I'm keeping them all in my bath.

To be fair, I think he normally uses it as an excuse for "Oh we need to finish these up" rather than throwing them out....

Think we might be married to same man? Do you see him on Thursday nights and Saturdays?

Snh! No I've got my one fulltime, so I don't think we're sharing

if it looks ok and smells ok then we eat it... i have a pack of noodles with best before 1987, i wont eat them!

Some consumers really are incapable of understanding the difference between best before, use by, sell by, display until etc. A lot will throw things away rather than chance it or trust their own judgement. A few months ago, there was a move to change the wording on medications.... because some couldn't understand things like 'use sparingly'.

Mostly the best befores etc. are used by shops for stock rotation. Why would a pot-plant have a best before? Or a potato? Pre sell-by dates shelf-stackers would often put all the new stuff at the front and leave the old stuff languishing at the back.

biddy, think it might be time to 'let go' of the noodles?
I have a Christmas Pudding best before November 1997. Someone told me they get better with age.

Forhet sell by and use by..the only one to look for is the kill by date.

It's not you that is "throwing away £50 of food a month" then summer.

Nope, definitely not me! I didn't believe that anyone did until they were the only people they managed to speak to on the lunchtime news!

They obviously need to be at home more eating their perishables summer

I think it's a bit risky of them.

Since it turns out that food poisoning deaths are going up, most of those deaths are elderly people who, being post-war don't believe in use by dates and don't necessarily follow modern food hygiene/storage rules but also have weaker immune systems...

So in a way simpler would be good from those consumers point of view. Less guidance and more DO NOT eat this after X date, this is a risky product and might not be safe!