Best before dates removal cynical ploy

[MeetthemoveratDover]

So now ASDA along with Tesco, Waitrose, Morrisons etc. is the latest supermarket to remove best before dates.

In theory this should help reduce waste as we all know fruit and veg lasts longer than the bb dates on them.

But does anyone else think this is just a cynical ploy to sell produce on the turn? It’s going to be a licence for supermarkets to sell almost gone-off stuff.

At least with a best before date you can expect to get a good few days or even week in the fridge out of fruit and veg. Whereas with no date, you could get it home and it’s started to turn off or mouldy within a day or two. Will there be shelves of slightly dodgy fruit and veg now?

Surely given the price of food we should have some guarantee of its freshness when we buy it?

This thread has just proved exactly why best before dates need to go.

1. many don’t know the difference between bb dates and use by dates


2. people a lost the ability to use all their senses when shopping.

look at the food you’re buying. People are saying how will they know if the foods good without a date on it. I’ve had to throw away food during the heat wave that was still within its use by date. It had gone off prematurely due to the heat. If I’d followed the best before date I’d have made myself sick eating spoiled food. Other times I’ve used food after it’s bb date because The food was fine.
The dates are meaningless.

I’m also quite stringent about fruit and veg.

If you’re unlucky you can end up with strawberries or raspberries that go off in 24 hours. Ie. you start seeing mould on them the next morning. Or asparagus within 48 hours going slimy on the tips (yuk). All those mostly come in packages.

Usually I look for the longest BB dates it often does make a difference. Of course I’m capable of telling if it’s ok or not to eat it. I just want it as fresh as possible with the highest nutrient content and you get variations even now. I just think it’s going to get worse and be a license for shops to sell stuff right up to the point of being well past it’s best.

As pp said it’s more that it’s a guarantee of a few days freshness.

This annoys me, I don't use the date to judge when I should eat/chuck out the food, I use it guage the freshness of the stuff when I buy it in the shop so I have the best chance of eating it before it declines.

I see the articles say the produce will have a code of some sort so the staff can guage "quality and freshness" - hopefully mere muggles like myself shall be able to decipher this mysterious code so I too can guage the quality, and freshness of what I'm buying...

This annoys me as we get 3 2-pint bottles of milk a week, if there aren’t any dates we wont know in what order to use them so will end up pouring milk down the sink which they claim to be trying to avoid. If there is a use by date that would be ok, however at present it’s a use by date on milk so it looks like that’s what they are getting rid of.
I have heard mention of a QR code - are we gonna have to crouch in front of the milk crates with our phones to read the codes?
Similar for cheese, are we gonna have to freeze it to make sure it doesn’t go overripe before opening? I have different cheeses on the go, open at once.
And cheese doesn’t always smell off even when it is off, as I discovered to my cost. Not everyone has a good sense of smell either.
Maybe we’ll have to write the date of purchase on with a sharpie to at least give us a clue, although that’s no guarantee how long its been on the shelf before purchase.

How will they do 'yellow stickers' if they don't know how close it is to going off?

Of course it is. Just like introduction of plastic charge was. These retailers save millions now as a result of not giving out bags. Nothing to do with the environment.

It's not like it's a brand new concept. How does tesco do it? I think they gor rid of bb on veg a while ago

The number of grown men and women who don’t know the difference between Best Before and Use By is shameful.

Use By is about food safety.
Best Before is about quality and freshness. Food can be used perfectly safely after Best Before dates if stored well.

I think it's a good idea. For things like strawberries, I only ever buy if I'm going to eat them that day or the next day. Buying them to eat three days later is just silly as they don't last- they aren't meant to, and I'd rather have some that go off quickly as opposed to chock full of chemicals to keep them going longer.
For other produce, its easy to tell if they are fresh or not, but again I will only buy fresh fruit and veg according to how much I will use and eat.

I think this is just indicative of how many people have lost the ability to judge freshness/quality themselves (confirmed by how many people throw things away based on an arbitrary date!). As a pp says, how would you cope with buying fruit and veg from a market stall where there are no dates at all? You go by look, feel etc. And yes, in a supermarket some items come in packs - but you can still always see what they look like, and usually give them a good squeeze as well.

DATES ON MILK WILL STAY, because they are use by dates, not best before dates. And this is the issue. People don't know the difference.

Strawberries last a week if you store them in a glass container.

Anyway, best before does not equal use by. And food can go off before a use by date so people need to learn what food looks and smells like when it's off. And how to store it properly.

Food waste is a huge environmental issue.