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

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I'll admit to being strict with use by dates. In terms of food safety, these are the only ones that matter to me. The rest is fair game-sniff it, taste it, and if it's ok, eat it!

Milk, yogurts, cheese etc just beyond their use by date I check by smell and taste.

Meat, poultry and eggs - I would not use after the use by date.

Fruit, veggies and bread products - I ignore the use by date and go by the item itself.

Best before dates I view as just a guideline.

I tend to freeze stuff rather than throw it away and make meals around what needs using up.

Tend to ignore use by and best before dates within about a week's range. I work on smell and texture unless it's meat where I will pay more attention. I tend to freeze meat though unless I'm going to use it within 48 hours of purchase.
With food that's getting close to use by and best before dates and if not ready to use it, I might cook something with it that I can freeze.
I try and have a week each month where I don't do a weekly shop and use up what we have in freezer, fridge and cupboard.

Use by dates on eggs, meat, fish etc. I keep to. Usually I would cook whatever it is and eat it on the day or cook and freeze it for later. DH's father gave DH a really bad stomach once with sausages which he had cooked and had been in the fridge for ages. We didn't know whether they had been in date when he started but luckily I didn't eat them and didn't allow the DC to.

Best before we are much more flexible with - DH will go further past best before dates than I do. Things like cereal or biscuits are absolutely fine after their best before date. Fruit and veg I use my own judgment and if I think e.g. bananas need to be used I'll either cut and freeze them for later, make banana bread or, as we have just tried for the first time, make Banana jam (with ginger in it is gorgeous).

I ignore best before dates on the whole other than that if something comes in the shopping that i know i won't use that quickly i will freeze it. Veg and fruit i will also ignore any dates but i am more cautious with meat and fish, though i usually keep an eye out and those get bunged in the freezer.

I tend to ignore both best before and use by dates. I go on the look of the product and the smell.
Slightly ropey veg can always be used in the slow cooker rather than cutting it up for nibbles etc.

I read them, but use them only as a guide. Meat and poultry I try to use before or next day. Vegetables I always go by look/smell/feel. We ate a tomato today with a best before 27 november date. Still good!

I try to write on a board on the fridge the use by dates

I will stick to the use by dates on meat but best befores on fruit and veg i ignore and just judge on how it looks and smells.

Eggs are still edible weeks after their use by date but the quality reduces by the white thinning so depends what they are being used for.

Bread etc i just look for mould but i use the date as a guide of when to start taking a closer look as mould is my nemesis :)

Oops posted too early. I write the use by dates to try not to let anything go bad. If any vegetables seem to be going bad I freeze them to make stock later.

I will stick to use by dates but tend to go by my own wits when it comes to best before dates. I usually find that use by dates are usually associated with meat and dairy whilst best before is used for almost everything else :)

Hmmm I hope I know the difference.

Use by dates - I certainly pay more attention to this, in particular for chicken and pork, or meat products that contain these items, like Kievs or pork pies. I always go by smell though, as I treat the dates as a guide, if it smells okay, and the item has to be cooked I will always still use it.
Best before - I am much more cynical about this date, it is a guide after all. I tend to find soft fruit is the closest to the date given. Anything else gets the sniff test!

I have just eaten a yogurt nearly 2 weeks past it’s best, but still perfectly edible.

I hate waste and will use up anything that I think has little time left - if it is meat then I just cook it in the slow cooker, to take hassle out, then once cooked I will freeze it for another dinner time. Or just use it for lunches.. like chicken salad, or coronation chicken, as once cooked you have more time to use it.

The only foods I 'bin' if not used by the 'useby' date is fish and fresh chicken.
All dairy products I use common sense and smell!

Most meats I freeze and take out as and when required.

I’m not confident that new style ring pull tins keep things as well as the very old ones, but I’d still use tins well after their date. Certain things I’m very cautious about - pate, sausages for example.
I think you can usually consume full fat milk after it has gone sour without Ill effects, - in fact I remember kids being made to drink sour milk when I was young as it was supposed to be “good” for them but semi skimmed and skimmed go bad rather than souring.

Also depends on your climate - if you live in a damp environment, things like pulses, spices etc don’t keep properly even in screwtop jars, the damp creeps in.

Best before doesn't mean much to us in practice. Use by is a bit more of a rule as far as meat goes, and generally we try to use food before the use by, but if it's not meat and past the use by but still looks okay, smells okay and tastes okay then it's usually fine. Excludes chicken, seafood etc, obviously!

With best before dates I look at them but generally just use common sense, look and smell and if it looks okay and smells ok, no worries.

I am more wary with meat items and don't like using them beyond the use by date. Normally you can tell if it's no good because of the smell once you unwrap the meat.

Only really take notice of best before and use by dates for meat. Use judgement for anything else for example smelling milk and appearance of bread.

Use the method of putting eggs in water to ensure they’re fresh. Get them from the farm and usually use them within days anyway.

Other than meat & fish, If it looks and smells ok, it gets eaten.

A use by date tells you food may be unsafe afterwards, a best before date is more vague. Shops aren't allowed to sell food after either date (although spar usually does).

I hate best before dates. I'm highly suggestive and although I know I should ignore them and use my judgement, I always imagine the food is off and can't eat it or give it to the children (I don't mind dh having it . I wish best before dates didn't exist

I largely ignore best before date - just use the smell and common sense to assess if something is still ok to eat. I take much more notice of use-by dates but still exercise common sense. Some things - like hard cheese - I would use in coming after the use by date. I would be more cautious with meat. I often by meat that is on the date and freeze it - and would take care to defrost it safely and cook it well.

It grieves me when food is thrown away unnecessarily. When clearing out a relative house recently i found some sugar which was a couple of years out of date. My friend thought it should be binned despite its perfect appearance and consistency. I made a sticky toffee pudding with 😊

I grew up in the days before Use By and Best Before dates, and learned from my mum how to use my senses and my common sense to judge whether food is fit to eat.

I have eaten out of date food and food past its Best Before date with no ill effects at all. Equally, I have thrown away food that was in date, but had gone off anyway.

I regard these dates as advisory, not hard and fast rules I must obey. I also know that Best Before means that, after this date, the food may not be at its best, but may well still be fine to eat.

I also use the freezer to prolong the life of meat and fish - I freeze things raw, or I freeze cooked left overs, and I make sure I use them within 24 hours of defrosting.
On some things - dry goods like pasta, rice, flour etc - I don’t ever bother looking at the dates.

I do try not to waste food - I think that treating the dates as advisory helps with that - and I plan the week’s main meals, to try to make sure I buy what I need, and don’t end up wasting food - but I don’t succeed half as well as I wish I did.

I tend to go by Use By dates but ignore to a certain extent Best Before dates.
I'd be more careful with food I was giving to the DC though as they seem to have more sensitive stomachs.

I use the "use by" date as a rough guide but do not automatically throw away if beyond the date. You can usually tells by the look of a product if it is still ok and smell is a extremely useful.

However there are some things, such as chicken, that I am happy to eat a day beyond the use by date if it looks and smells ok but would only eat myself and not give to the kiddies.

I use as a guide if says use by date and day after or so - I would sniff and check meat etc

Best before is a guide when to use but can go over that date

As far as I understand it food tastes better before the Best before date but is not guaranteed as safe to eat after the Use by date. I tend to ignore the best before date completely but take the use by date as a strict rule (apart from vegetables and fruit). I regularly check food dates, I don’t buy too much in one go, and i use the freezer if I need to. For fruit and veg I judge by how it looks and feels.

We tend to buy food day to day, so the situation never arises. Although, because I tend to buy too much milk, I won't buy it with a reduced sticker on, as it could be in the fridge for days.