Do you work in Tesco? AIBU to ask you a question?

[Churrolicious]

(Just one, it’s not an AMA request, honest ;))

So I know fruit and veg lasts long beyond its sell by date if stored correctly and I happily used to use my judgement in these situations. But Tesco’s new wheeze (and it feels like a wheeze TBH) of removing sell by dates on their cheapest range of fruit and veg is driving me nuts. Last Saturday I bought carrots and celery and neither were fit for anything by mid week. Today’s celery looks similarly lacklustre already but no way to tell how long it’s already been out - so surprise surprise if I want a sell by date on my celery so I can tell how long it’s been on the shelf is 25p more than what I was buying previously.

So, AIBU:

a) to see this whole strategy as a cynical ploy to sell fruit and veg running to the end of its shelf life when consumers given a choice would pick something that would stay fresh for longer?

b) to ask anyone who works in the fruit and veg section at Tesco what the numbers on these label mean? One of them must be an indication of date / when it was picked / something for internal purposes that give a hint to whether I’m buying decrepit veg. What does the 185 mean?

[I know IABU buying celery but it’s summer and I’m on a diet.]

I’ve been having the issue wth both loose and the redmere farm carrots. I didn’t know that the plastic wrapping could be doing it. Some great ideas for veg storage here, thank you.

Work in the frozen food industry and a date like that to us would mean it was produced on the 185th day of the year. Therefore in July.

Have just removed all my veg from the bags and put them in the fridge so hopefully that will help.

Sadly veg box not working for us at the mo - I think there are local options but kids are quite fussy about what they will and won’t eat so when I tried previously we end up with lots of unused bits and running out of other bits.

Interesting about the 185 possibly being the 185th day of the year. I wonder if that was when it was packed then.

Not a Tesco worker, but have worked in retail management in the past. Generally that number refers to when it was picked, so the higher the number the fresher the product, eg: veg with 184 is not as fresh as it was picked before 185, so go for the highest number you can get.