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

With the exception of fruit and veg, which can be checked with one's eyes, I generally abide by use by dates, particularly with meat and dairy. I will occasionally go one or two days beyond the use by date, dependent on the type of food, as I try to reduce food waste wherever possible. If I have any doubts, I will check what Google says, as the internet is a vast source of knowledge for this type of information (what did people do before Google?) I don't like to take any risks with my toddler; but my husband and I have sturdier stomachs than he does, and we usually go by the look and smell of food.

I tend to be a little more flexible with best before dates, as the dates are usually for taste rather than safety. As with many things, it's a matter of common sense much of the time.

tbh I go with the sniff test ! best before dates - give it a good window depending on product , months after can be fine. use by dates - go with common sense on this, depending on product of course, those with lots of sugar will probably be good for days after

I tend to see how it looks or smell and decide

I was always brought up believing food can be ate after the best before date but not the used by date. I still would go by this rule. The best before products i always use my nose, you can always smell or taste if something is off. I tend not to use them longer than 3 or 4 days at the most after the best before date! My husband on the other hand eats everything no matter what date is on it!

As a vegetarian I don't have the problem of worrying about meat, however I'm still cautious. I try never to throw anything away and most things as long as they look and smell ok I'll still eat. I think its just about using common sense to avoid waste and save money.

I use them as a loose guide only, I think the best way is just to smell the food. We throw away far too much delcent useable food

I’m sure ‘Best before’ was invented by a marketing team, so I take no notice. Use by is a general guide, I still go with my nose and common sense.

I am off the opinion you should always taste things past the BBD. Or cook them first. i have worked in the food manufacturing for many years and the UK production sites are often top class and BBD are often safety first meaning there is more life than the label gives.

I know that use by dates are important and try to use the products by that date. However, I might go over a day or two if it looks ok. Best before dates I tend to ignore unless it has obviously gone off/set hard or looks funny I still use it. I have herbs that are years out of date and I still use them. Never had food poisoning ever as I think as long as you store things well it’s fine.

I'm a bit funny about this sort of thing but am trying to be more adaptable, I tend to look at bread to see if it is mouldy and if not then I still use it. I have eggs and other things after the use by date but with things like meat I tend to err on the side of caution.... my mum on the other hand will only stop eating/using something it it gets up and walks out of her fridge!!

Use by dates I take notice of but would add a day or two margin usage for some foods using a good nose test first.

Best before dates I'd take as a guide but use my own judgement.

I think a lot of perfectly good food is wasted because of best before dates. People are too scared to use their own common sense and good judgement instead of relying on arbitrary dates dictated by supermarkets who just want us to buy more. How on earth do people think everyone coped before sell by dates?

Best before is not something I pay much attention to, I'll check if the food is palatable myself. With Use by dates I'll be aware of them but will use my own judgement. Meat, veg, fruit, eggs and yoghurts for example are often fine for a while after the date and it is easy to check they are. I would be much more cautious with fish pate.

The instructions to chuck stuff soon after opening are nearly always unnecessary.

Its about common sense and using your nose and eyes really.

Best before means after the date the quality of the product might not be perfect but its usually edible.
Use By means if you go beyond the date it could be harmful to your health to eat it -i.e. meat usually has bacteria on it and this multiplies.
Fridges only stall the inevitable for so long, and even food in your freezer can have enzymes on it so you shouldnt really go over those dates.

I just dont get to those dates, I always check cupboards to make sure things are in date the only exceptions being some of the spices i have bought for an odd recipe but i usually just sling them in something else i cook. I usually go through our freezer after christmas (putting older stuff on the top as its a small chest freezer so we eat that first), then at Easter time and then in October, so I usually catch food before it goes out of date in the freezer.

We have a pair of rabbits and they usually eat the veggie leaves and left overs of those, and i sometimes chop up veg and freeze it for the next soup or stock jobbie.

We have a dog so raw meat gets cooked and he gets that to eat.

Everything else that is processed (which we dont have much of really) we make ourselves eat it for tea before it goes off!

In the good old days there were no sell by dates - things just got eaten quicker and people shopped more often - I think people just over shop a lot and then cant eat it all within the week, then go back and repeat! Its probably a hard habit to break but if you always have stuff out of date why not buy less than you think you need and see how it goes - you may find yourself saving money as you just spend the odd night mid-week eating up what is nearly at its end!

I don't stick to dates. If it smells ok and looks ok I will still use it. If I have cooked it I will freeze it. If I know I am not going to use it I will freeze it. None of us are ill from it - in fact, we are rarely ill in the house

With fruit and veg you only get a best before date on the pre-packed stuff. Pick your own loose items and there is no date - but people seem to manage OK by sight, touch and smell. Some fruit (eg. bananas) is often not ready to eat when you buy it, but I have never seen a "best after" date on it. If you buy meat products from a traditional butcher or market stall you also get no use by date, but we seem to manage OK. Maybe supermarkets should have a "sell by" date for their own stock control or a "date produced" instead of a "best before".
Even when items have a best before date weeks in the future you may find in tiny, tiny writing "once opened, refrigerate and consume within 3 days" and this can be very annoying. The only food I end up throwing away tends to be this type.

I tend to check the colour and the smell of food before deciding whether to chuck or eat.
Anymore than a few days out and it gets chucked.
Casseroles are great for using up food or sauces you can freeze such as spaghetti bolognese.

I will pay a little more attention to use by dates for things like eggs. For meat, I am a more aware of the use by dates and look out for tell take signs that it may have gone off. I use the best before dates as a guide to a product which maybe going off in the near future but again I will look at each product individually in terms of smell, taste, appearance etc.

Like most people I use common sense when it comes to best before dates, but pay a bit more attention to use by dates for meat and fish. Would not feed anything past its use by date to vulnerable groups (old/young). With the exception of eggs - my 11yo dd loves doing the egg test: pop an egg into a jug full of water, and if it floats, it's a bad egg. If it sinks it's good. We've eaten eggs 6 weeks past their use by date which still sank! And would never throw eggs away without doing this test.

It's the things like jars of sauces that have to be 'refrigerated and used within 3 days of opening' - they're the ones I waste the most. Or when i buy a new fruit juice or something that the kids are not keen on and it just sits there reproachfully. We often have what the kids call a "cobble together dinner" to use up leftovers / things approaching the end of their life / stuff in the fridge.

I'm interested in how we can reduce plastic & all unnecessary packaging and what impact this will have on use by dates!

With meat i am a bit cautious when it comes to best before dates, rather than throw away if it is due to be eaten i freeze to save money.
yogurts, milk etc i just have a sniff, they usually last longer than the dates.

Best before dates suggest guideline dates to consume the product by, but are flexible and usually you can go past the best before date without any consequences. Use by dates are more for fresh products like dairy or meat or fruit and veg, and generally you are advised to stick strictly to them.

I am most likely to ignore all best before dates, and use my judgement on the smell and appearance of the food if i'm concerned it is too past the date. I usually follow 'use by dates'. If it's meat or fish, I will always ditch it if it's more than 1 day out of date, just in case, unless of course it looks or smells funny beforehand! For milk I will ignore the date and continue to use it until it clots in my tea haha. For cheese I will also ignore the date and just cut off any mouldy edges that may appear!

For foods that have gone beyond their 'best before date', which I'm assuming just include the frozen, canned, or packaged cupboard type foods etc, then I wouldn't bin anything after its best before date! I would use my own judgement before I binned it :)

I use up food that have gone beyond their best before date the usual way.. I eat it. Unless it's maybe years beyond the date, then I'll throw it in the bin.

I store food the way the product tells me to. I do like to freeze bread now and then. I also make sure all my meats and fish are on the bottom shelf to prevent any possible dripping onto other foods and contamination of bacteria.

I try not to throw any food away by creating a meal plan each week and buying the exact amount of ingredients I need for that week. I stock up on non-perishable foods, and am careful not to buy too much perishable foods in one go. I can always go back to the shop if I do need more fresh stuff.

It depends. Careful with meat and fish, but still go largely by smell. The meat we get from our butcher and the fish from the fishmonger don't have any dates.

Yoghurt I won't touch until it's about 6 weeks after its Use by date, then it's nice and sharp - I only get plain (or sometimes for a treat say every 2 or 3 years - gooseberry) anyway.

Veg, fruit. Easy enough to tell whether it's OK without dates on.

Biscuits, doughnuts, crackers; well I rather like them stale too!

I think pretty well everything else can be eaten whenever. Today I found a bag of sultanas which were Use by something like 2010. Nothing wrong with them and I very much enjoyed them. They"d have been less crystallised on 2009 I suppose.

My mum and grandmother both lived through the war, so had to eat much worse! Gannet anyone? Apparently it was revolting.

I am quite strict with use by dates, but I'm more flexible with best before and will have a look or taste to decide.

My partner ignores the dates completely!

I tend to use my senses if something's close to/past its date - smell and sight to see if I think it's still ok! I'm more cautious with use by dates at the moment as I'm pregnant, especially with things like meat and dairy products where I'm not willing to take the risk!

With stuff like veg that's past its best before date, though, I tend to batch cook it - making stews, soups, pasta sauces etc for the freezer before it goes off...

I pay attention to Use By but not so much best before dates unless there is meat/dairy content.