Mumsnet users talk Best before and Use by Dates with Sainsbury’s

[EllieMumsnet]

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The team at Sainsbury’s would love to hear your thoughts on Best before and Use by dates for food and drinks. Do you know the difference between Best before and Use by dates? And which dates, if any, are you most likely to ignore? What foods are you most likely to bin if they’ve gone beyond their Best before date? And, more importantly, how do you use up food that’s gone beyond its Best before date – please share with us your tips! What food storage ‘rules’ do you tend to follow? And finally, how do you ensure you don’t have to throw away food?

Sainsbury’s says “We know there’s often lots of confusion around Best before and Use by dates, as well as how food should be stored properly to avoid it going to waste. So we want to hear your tips and tricks to avoid food going in the bin unnecessarily.”

Add your comment, tips and views to this thread and you will be entered into a prize draw where one winner will get a £300 Sainsbury’s voucher.

Thanks and good luck
MNHQ

Standard Insight T and Cs apply

My strategy for avoiding waste - feeeze it.

I love a yellow sticker! Will always purchase (say if it’s meat or fish) and feeeze a yellow stickered item.

I don’t pay an awful lot of attention to best before or use by. Tbh, food doesn’t hang around that long in our fridge 😳

I definitely rely on my senses rather than the use by date or best before but I must admit I'm fussy about bread cakes etc as I don't like them stale. I'm careful with meat however and I'm unlikely to use it any more than one day past sell by date. I do freeze a lot of meat and vegetables if I think they're about to go off and I use the slow cooker to make stews and soup to use up any vegetables that are past their best.

I operate a two-tier system. I run a food business from home, so for anything I'm making for 'real' people I'm absolutely scrupulous about dates etc. For me and the family though, common sense is fine. I think how you store stuff makes a big difference, and having a good awareness of food hygiene helps a lot with this.

Do you know the difference between Best before and Use by dates?
I've always thought use by were stricter and more important, whereas best before is just a guide for when the food would be freshest.

And which dates, if any, are you most likely to ignore?
Both but more likely best before.
What foods are you most likely to bin if they’ve gone beyond their Best before date?
I don't really look at best before dates. I would throw away meat or fish past their use by date.

And, more importantly, how do you use up food that’s gone beyond its Best before date – please share with us your tips!
However it was initially intended to be used. I meal plan though so rarely have surplus that is going to go to waste.

What food storage ‘rules’ do you tend to follow?
I wrap or box things like cheese and ham.

And finally, how do you ensure you don’t have to throw away food?
Meal plan and only buy for the meals we are going to have that week.

I shop every day, so sell by and use by dates are fairly irrelevant.

I know the difference between Best Before, and Use By, and to be honest I largely ignore both of them, particularly with fruit & veg and with dairy, which all last way longer than the dates suggest. I really hate waste and would never sling something in the bin simply on the basis of a date on the packaging!

I am a bit more wary of fresh chicken and fish, and try and use them up promptly, but it's pretty obvious if they are OK or not.

I use my good old-fashioned senses - look for odd smells, soft texture, mould, discoloration, puffing-up of packet etc which would tell me the food is not fit to eat.

With things that are past their best I look for other ways to use them up, e.g:
Overripe fruit can be used in a crumble or a cake.
Stale bread can be toasted or made into breadcrumbs.
Tired veg can go into a soup.
Pretty much anything can be frozen.

We are not meat eaters, but with regard to fish I would not go past the use by date. Best before dates are a little more ambiguous as all it means is that to enjoy the product at its optimal freshness to eat within that date. We most definitely eat things after this date by some times a considerable time !

For me there is slight difference between 'Use by' and 'Best Before'. I tend to eat or drink both beyond the date specified if I feel that it looks okay and smells okay. I always ignore the dates on vegetables as they tend to last a long longer than stated, although I would be weary of using meat beyond the use by dates as I would assume it could cause sickness. I binned some ham today that had a date of 30th December on it, for meat I would only go 1 or 2 days beyond the use by date.

It's good to use up fruit by making a fruit cocktail to have with yogurt, or by freezing it for smoothies (I always do this with bananas once they've gone a bit too brown). Vegetables and meat can be used to make a casserole!

I would say meal planning is the best way to avoid food waste. I wish the supermarkets would do their own cheaper version of the boxes (like Hello Fresh, or Gousto) because I'd love to create healthy delicious meals by buying the exact measured ingredients with zero waste.

I understand the difference between best before and use by in theory, but in practice I probably just glance at it and take note of the date without thinking about which one it is. I am very relaxed about using food past the date (whichever it is), probably because I am lucky and hardly ever get sick. My DC are the same.

I absolutely would not cook/use anything past its use-by date, and I don’t limit this to meat/fish. For best before dates, I will continue to produce past this - as long as they smell and look ok, as this is obviously the biggest indicator that something is ok to eat.

I tend to ignore best before dates especially with fruit and veg, if it's looking a little sad I usually cut the worst of it off and then make soup or a smoothie with it.

Use by dates I so pay more attention to, especially with meat and fish, but I do go by smell and appearance. If it's getting near or on the use by date I tend to freeze stuff and it usually keeps in the freezer for another month or so.

I largely ignore all dates and use my eyes, nose, tastebuds and common sense.

I think these dates are definitely a contributory factor in the increase in food waste. We seem to have younger generations who think that the dates have some magically properties and that food knows the time and date and must be thrown away once the clock strikes midnight.

You see it on threads very often that people don't have any confidence in their own abilities to tell if food can be eaten and also think that dates are an exact science and that supermarkets don't apply a sensible margin of error to the dates.

I won't purchase anything that is on its Best Before or Use By date, as I don't know how it has been stored before that point.

I will however consider using food that I purchased say a week earlier, but which has now reached its Best Before or Use By date whilst in my own fridge or darkened cupboard. I trust my own instinct, sense of sight and sense of smell.

Never eat meat after it’s use by date but tend to go by looks and smells for most other foods. Infuriates me that my teen refuses to eat anything after it’s best before date even though I’ve explained numerous times that it’s just a guide.

I'm quite sure it's these dates that lead to so much food waste. I noticed BBE dates on tin cans, yet, when I was growing up, cans didn't have dates and we were always told that tinned food lasts indefinitely.

I've noticed in recent years that things like boxed cakes have a really short shelf life and we often find that having shopped at the weekend we've passed the best before dates before the next weekend. When I've ignored them the cakes definitely taste stale.

I'm aware that Use by is the one you shouldn't ignore. We don't eat meat so that's not an issue for us but things like cream and yoghurt often get thrown away.

Butter (block) and eggs I ignore any date. Butter you can smell if it's off or going off and any really old eggs I put in a jug of water. If they start to rise to the top then I bin then but if not we eat them.

I try to be sensible about dates - best by is just a guide as to when the food might taste best by, use by is a bit more of an indication that the food may go off at that point. Meat I'm generally cautious with, milk/dairy gets a sniff, fruit/veg get the yuck bits cut off!
I have a chalk board thing on the fridge so we can write the use by of meat/yog etc on that and make sure it gets used in the right order

I use eggs way beyond their date. I do the water test. If i put it in a jug of water and it sinks then it's fine. I've used eggs a month over the date and not noticed a difference.

For meat and fish I use my senses. I tend to use it within the dates or freeze it on the day. Like a pp I'm unsure how long things can be frozen for. I ate chicken last night that had been frozen probably on its use by date in Sept. I'm still living!

I watched a documentary that showed ready meals are good for at least a couple of days after their date so they're fine.

I get so cross when people throw perfectly good food away because they're a slave to the dates on the pack - especially best before! I pop eggs in water long after the date on the pack. If they float I throw away, but if they sink I use them. I sniff milk and meat, and I'm happy to cut mouldy bits off cheese and eat the rest.

I think that best before dates should be abolished! They're the reason so many people throw so much food away.

Best before dates I use more of a guide & use my own judgement on if it's still OK to eat or not.
Use by I will stick to especially concerning meat/fish or eggs.

Best before dates don't worry me, I consider them just a guide. Use by dates I stick to and would not go beyond if it is meat or dairy.

I use the dates mainly to decide which is freshest on the supermarket shelf, but will quite often choose a lesser dated product if the quality looks better (i.e. redder tomatoes, leaner bacon).
I'll use the dates on meat to eat at home in an order but will quite often freeze on the date if I know it won't be used in the next few days. I will happily buy and freeze reduced items on date. Same for fish.
Fruit and veg will be used at any point until it goes mushy or mouldy.
Baked goods will be similar - would maybe toast if stale or turned into something else.
Dairy will likewise be used until the point it turns sour or goes green.
Tins and jars will be used when required and only disposed of if corroded or unsealed.

Useby is generally used for fresh food such as fruit and veg or meat/fish. I'd never risk meat, fish or dairy, but I'd use fruit and veg past the use by date if it looks ok. Best before is used on packet, tinned goods, if the food tastes ok after the best before date then I'd use it as long as it wasn't too far out of date.

I used to not even look at the dates til getting pregnant and now weaning baby I am more careful to check use by dates. I mostly use frozen veg now it keeps so much longer, no need to check dates and is easier no washing or peeling.

Use by is for fresh food. I wouldn't risk things like prawns, pate etc. but use my nose and eyes if there is just a day or two in it for most things.
Best before is a recommendation. My logic is that if something is safe in a tin/jar for several years, a month or two won't make a difference.

As a society, we waste far too much food and I'd love to see this change.

We used to have a disagreement in the house, as I always ignored them. Now we have a label on the fridge which explains the difference