To say no Morrisons now is not a good time to introduce a sniff test

[Fiftythreepercent]

BBC News reporting today that Morrisons is removing use by dates from its milk in favour of best before and encouraging consumers to take a sniff test when deciding whether to use the milk or not.

Tremendous timing Morrisons since I’ve not been able to smell more than 20% of anything since Covid in August. Left on gas? Nope. Chopping onions? Not a whiff. Gone off milk. Not a hope in hell.

Me and half the country?

[quote greenlynx]@LawnFever
The current system is fine because it’s the same everywhere and people are taught in certain way.
I use fruits and vegs beyond their best before date but milk is different as I put raw milk in my tea.
Sniffing is very subtle testing, not all people can rely on it.[/quote]
'raw milk'? Raw milk is unpasteurised. If you are using supermarket milk it isn't raw, it has been heat treated i.e. pasteurised.

@WetLookKnitwear

Wish I could get my DH to do this. The moment the clock strikes midnight marking the beginning of best before date the whole lot goes down the sink.

This makes me so angry/sad..........a family friend is like this, throws out jams, pickles all sorts of foods that are perfectly safe to eat.

I think Morrisons is great for doing this..........far too much food is wasted. I've never blindly abided by "use by" on milk, it's sniff it and see in my house!!

DH used to work for a food research institute, where they undertook several projects to establish best before/use by times for various foods. None of the results were consistent enough to establish anything except that the Harvard Law is true.

The Harvard Law states: "Under controlled conditions of light, temperature, humidity, and nutrition, the organism will do as it damn well pleases."

So best before/use by dates are set by producers with a wide safety margin - but even then they can't guarantee the organism will co-operate, which is why the consumer is always advised to check for themselves.

@CaptainMyCaptain
bad choice of word on my side, I’ve meant that I’m not cooking it just using as it is.

@FluffyBooBoo
I’m absolutely fine with best before dates on other products like vegs, fruits, etc. we have very little food waste in this house as everything is used, however I disagree with putting milk in the same category as apples and carrots.

But some people can't read either so you can please everyone! The point is to stop people being so darn wasteful, the milk industry is utterly barbaric, the least we can do is be mindful of over consumption, not waste and treat milk with the respect it actually deserves!

Can't *

@MissMaple82

But some people can't read either so you can please everyone! The point is to stop people being so darn wasteful, the milk industry is utterly barbaric, the least we can do is be mindful of over consumption, not waste and treat milk with the respect it actually deserves!

I think that's the key. Dates or no dates, use the milk until it goes off. Use whatever means you can to establish this. Most people can and do give it a sniff anyway even before any messing with BB/UB dates.

And nothing bad will happen if you accidentally get a small taste of off milk even.

[quote greenlynx]@CaptainMyCaptain
bad choice of word on my side, I’ve meant that I’m not cooking it just using as it is.[/quote]
I thought that was what you meant but it has already been 'cooked'.

We have a milk delivery so the glass bottles have no use by date anyway. I'm amazed anyone would just chuck milk away at midnight. Freeze it if you have some left.

@TroysMammy you don't have to look at dates on eggs, just put in a glass of water, if it sinks it's ok, if it floats to the top it's off.

It's a good idea if it encourages people to use their common sense (sadly lacking these days) but not sure it will have much effect really.

@PineappleWilson

We have a milk delivery so the glass bottles have no use by date anyway. I'm amazed anyone would just chuck milk away at midnight. Freeze it if you have some left.

We have glass milk bottles too. The date is on the foil lid. (I freeze milk too).

A point that seems massively overlooked is the fact that when food is past it's USE BY it legally has be discarded, can't be donated to charity, can't be taken home by staff to use. If milk therefore now has a BEST BEFORE not a use by date, that means the milk that's got to it's date and can't be sold can be given away to people in need. Thus reducing food waste. Big win win as I see it. Completely confused why some posters are planning to buy milk elsewhere as a result ?

Completely confused why some posters are planning to buy milk elsewhere as a result ?

Me too, think of all the milk Morrisons can donate to charity if they don't sell it before the BB date though.

We have glass milk bottles too. The date is on the foil lid. (I freeze milk too).

we have milk delivered. It took me an embarrassingly long time to notice the date on the foil lid!

All they've done is change the "use by" to "best before" because stupid people are binning perfectly good produce because of the date. If you don't trust your sense of smell then stick to the date. But you can also use your eyes to tell when milk has gone off, it's super obvious.

I don't get the big fuss - aren't they just changing to best before date & sniff test instead of use by date ?

I can't see the fuss tbh.

We have milk from the milkman. It doesn't have a use by or a best before date on the milk bottles. So we go based on appearance, taste and smell.

From what I read it's only the best before date they are removing, there will still be a Use By date in them.

Oops - other way round re dates I think now I've re read

And no, our food lids don't have a date in - just been and checked the 3 bottles I have in.

@BarbaraofSeville

^If Morrisons actually!wanted to DO something, they'd stop their ENORMOUS waste of food in store & instead of putting ENORMOUS amounts of food in the rubbish, they'd actually do what they claim to do and give it to people who need it.

It's not health & safety, they're unethical and would prefer to 'waste' it so people buy a newer product in store. Their staff aren't even allowed to take it home/eat it, it must be binned.

Changing to 'best before' is virtue signalling at best^

Morrisons are actually quite pro-active about reducing food waste in my experience. If you go to store an hour or two before closing, all the 'going out of date' stuff is reduced to pennies and they will actually move it to the tills and a member of staff will stand there offering it to people.

They're also the only supermarket on 'Too Good to Go' as far as I can see (we have all supermarkets locally and they're the only ones who come up as having things available) selling off bags of fresh produce for a couple of quid at the end of each day.

Yes, they do a few virtue signalling things that people think makes them fabulous.

I know how much several branches throw away, unnecessarily, daily.

It's an utter disgrace!!

@Abraxan

And no, our food lids don't have a date in - just been and checked the 3 bottles I have in.

That's interesting, I thought they had to have a date on fresh food. Ours are from milk & more & it's embossed (if that is the right word, maybe an impression is a better one) on the foil lid.