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

I am extremely cautious about consuming food after a 'use by' date, especially meat items and often prefer to dispose of it rather than eat it. 'Best before' dates I am a lot less bothered about because they are less important and simply means that the food may not be as good a quality.

I ignore best before dates on everything and only pay attention to use by if it's chilled stuff eg coleslaw or meat

Use By is the date after which food may not be safe for consumption, whereas Best Before is the date after which the quality, taste, texture etc may deteriorate. This date helps make sure customers keep buying more fresh products, eg salt! I stick to use by and generally ignore best before. Its only grapes that seem to go mouldy after or even before the best before date. We're not great about using up foods but do compost it. We follow all storage advice.

Use by dates i stick to religiously as i believe that they are there to make sure the product is safe to eat and after the use by they are not safe to eat because of bacteria growth as tested in labs regardless of what the product looks or smells like.
Best before dates i treat as a guideline. Food will be at its best before the date but still safe to eat after the date so with that in mind i rely on smell, colour and texture.
Unprepared fruit and vegetables i ignore dates.
Also i am strict with dates when products have been opened if it says use within 3 days i tend to throw it on the 3rd day or before. I do try to buy smaller portions so less waste but sometimes its unavoidable.
So cream cheese, coleslaw and humous can go to waste quite easily.
I'd prefer multipacks of smaller servings so less waste.

I tend to ignore best before & use by dates and use my common sense instead. We are a family of vegetarians so I don't need to worry about meats. As far as fruit /veg is concerned if it looks fine & smells fine I'll just use it. Obvs is something looks or smells funky it'll get chucked tho.

I've been trying to reduce food waste by food planning and this is working brilliantly. I'm only buying what I need now and this is saving me a few pennies too.

I do still buy reduced items (due to use by dates) but will have a plan as to what I am using it for now to ensure it gets used up. I also freeze products.

I find making soup is a great way to use up any left over veg, add some simple spices and tinned pulses - its easy and quick to chuck something yummy together.

Best before - solely for stock rotation. Unopened stuff will keep for years, but once open may not.

Use by - I was taught to buy and cook food by a mother who'd grown up without a fridge, so potatoes and apples should be storable in a cool dark place for a year until the following year's crop. Root veg don't need use buy dates of a week and I will completely ignore them. Obviously green/mouldy bits are cut off.
Similarly, cheese and yoghurt are methods of preserving milk over the winter. A cheese that's matured for months doesn't need a use by date especially if in airtight packaging. I'll use Cheddar or unopened yoghurt months after the use by. Ditto unopened bacon or processed meat or smoked fish, all of which could hang in a larder for a year so vacuum-packed ones in a fridge really aren't going to go off in a week! Eggs go a bit stale but don't go off in six months in a fridge (I use them within a couple weeks of the use-by though, and only for baking if not very fresh)

Sealed packs of food like supermarket meat or ready meals I will try to eat by the use by but won't fret if it's a few days over.

Opened stuff other than hard cheese, I'll use within 5 days or so. However I am very fussy about leftover rice (cool quickly), pate and meat mousses and salads and similar that have been out at room temp, and will ditch them even if they are within date. I have friends at the PHE who will rant for hours about chicken liver parfait and food poisoning...

I understand the difference between the two and pay least attention to the Best Before dates as I know it only means that the food might not be at its best past that date.
I am pescetarian and the only time I stick to a use by date is for fish. For things like cheese and yoghurt, I just use common sense - if it smells and tastes OK then that's fine by me!
At the moment, I am looking at the dates on all the leftover Christmas food. We seem to have a lot of excess cheese so I am just trying to eat up the shorter dates first but I'd still happily eat anything past those dates - it's just a useful guide as to how long it may last.
Oh and I do pay attention to the use by date on yeast as I've found that past that date it's just not as effective, so you could end up wasting the ingredients for a whole loaf of bread if you use old yeast. I'd rather chuck one pack of yeast than a loaf of bread.

I hate food waste and try to avoid it as much as I can, usually by freezing. It's amazing what you can freeze. Ends of bread get frozen for breadcrumbs or making bread pudding when I have enough. Half used tins of things like custard, coconut milk, beans (not baked, kidney beans etc) freeze well.

Veg that is going past it's best gets chucked into soup and then frozen. Potatoes can be made into mash and frozen, which makes for a very convenient mid-week meal with frozen sausages and veg.

Meal planning can reduce wastage too. I do a fortnightly "big shop" and plan meals that use fresh veg, like stir fry or salad for soon after the shop. Towards the end of the fortnight, we have batch cooked things from the freezer or meals that can be made from store cupboard ingredients. I try to have a good look though the cupboards and freezer when meal planning too, to make sure we are using up what we have before buying more.

I do have a request to make of supermarkets though! It would be so good if more fruit and veg was sold loose, rather than in pre packed plastic bags. Not only would this cut down on plastic waste but it also means that you only buy what you need. My mum lives alone and struggles to get through a big bag of potatoes before they start sprouting but it's getting more and more tricky to buy loose

If it is meat, and it has passed it's best before date, by a few days, I will give it a sniff and if I feel it is 'on the turn' I will put in in the recycling bin. For fruit and vegetables I will go by the look. I keep my vegetables in the fridge and find that carrots, sprouts and potatoes will last over a week after the use by date.

I regular browse my local Aldi where they reduce their meat (fresh and cooked) to half price. I will freeze on day of purchase, and defrost when I need to use it. Today is their half price cod loin which I will cut into strips and make mini fish fingers for tea - these beauties only cost £1.59

I use both dates as a guide. I wouldn’t eat any sort of fish or offal that went past either date.
If anything doesn’t smell quite right or look right then it doesnt get eaten either.

@IToldYou completely agree about more loose veg to reduce plastic waste, or paper bags that you can pop in the recycling.

I blanch and freeze veg I won't use. I do the see if it floats test with eggs if I am worried. Bi also freeze bread regularly or if I have forgotten and it's stale I will make breadcrumbs or bread and butter pudding. I often lift up trays of veg in the supermarket to get the longest date ones from underneath, but I find wrapping them in brown paper helps longevity. It's only with high water content veg like Spinach and tomatoes that I really pay attention to best before because they can be grim so they get turned into pasta sauce and frozen because they don't freeze well fresh. Meat I would always freeze if it had reached use by because I have seen people suffer long lasting effects from food poisoning which is why I would never leave rice or meat standing out.

I am very paranoid about this and probably get rid of a lot of perfectly fine food. I have an almost 2 year old and worry I’ll make him ill. I know that lots of food will still be safe after the best before date so I’m going to make some changes this year!

I use both dates as a guide, but don't adhere strictly to them.

For fruit and vegetables I go by how they look, I've got some carrots with a "use by" date of 26th December, but am still using them as they are still in good condition.

Eggs I often use past their "use by" date by some days, as it's easy to see when they are past their best.

Fish, I generally keep to the "use by" date, though with smoked fish I am more flexible about the date. Meat, I use the dates as a guide and occasionally go past the recommended date, especially if the product is vacuum packed.

Produce with a long shelf life, I am usually happy to use after the "use by" date, my thinking here is that if it can sit on a shelf for two months then another week is of no concern!

In general, I am aware of the dates, but use my own judgement and experience to decide when to eat the produce.

I tend to just give stuff a sniff and see how it looks. I am more cautious with meat and fish for my children as I am a vegetarian myself so don’t have much meat experience. On Christmas Day I tried to tackle a shop bought trifle out of my MIL’s hands as she threw it in the bin as it was one day out of date. I didn’t get there in time

Rarely take any notice of the dates and did not really know the difference between best before/ use by. I just go by judgement.
But, errmmm I eat loads of stuff past dates, and don't really care, so errr maybe not the best person to ask.
But that's only for me, I'd never give it to Dh or ds's!!

Forgot to mention eggs. I ignore the use by date completely and do the float/ sink test.

Can I also use this opportunity to say thank you to Sainsbury's for providing the free EV charge points at your larger stores. Charge points are few and far between where I live (rural area) but I always know I can find one at Sainsbury and even better, it's free! ( for the time being anyway). Good marketing strategy too - I usually spend at least £50 there instead of at Tesco in exchange for about 50p of electricity.

I rely more on my senses than the 'best before' and 'use by' dates. Of the two types of date, I pay significantly more attention to 'use by' because that date is about safety, and am cautious if it's meat or fish, so would only ever go over by a day.

I'll often freeze meat or fish on the 'use by' day if I realise I won't use it that day, rather than risk it going off or having to throw it out.

I ignore "best before" dates - but will accept that some things won't be as good if significantly after that date (eg fizzy drinks in plastic bottles)

I treat "Use by" dated as guidance. I have a good fridge which is kept at 3 degrees, so I will eat meat up to a couple of days after (also looking and smelling it). As a PP said, it's not Cinderella's carriage and so doesn't turn into a pumpkin at the stroke of midnight. For milk, cream, butter, freshly squeezed orange juice and cheese, smell & appearance will make it obvious if it's off. I'm particularly sensitive to off milk (especially in tea) and it's usually only well after its Use By date that I get the "off" tinge. Ditto with OJ. Very occasionally they're "off" before the Use By date - in which case I would say it was a shortcoming in the distribution process.

I largely ignore best before dates & read by use by dates. Even then, I tend to buy lots of food that is 'on its date' therefore yellow-stickered & freeze it. I very firmly believe that sight, smell & touch are sufficient to tell if most products are OK, especially natural ones - after all, veg isn't grown with a date stamped on it, for example!

If it's veg I just look and see if its not slimy yet, and if it's tinned then I would go possibly a couple of years past the best before date (however my mother tried to convince me a 10 year out of date tin of evaporated milk would still be ok but I was so threw it away as even I have my limits. )

I ignore 'Best Before' dates and use my judgement on whether I can eat them or not. I use caution with 'Use by' dates. Ideally I will make a point of consuming products on or before their 'Use by' date and if it has passed I will still consider it if it still smells 'ok' for an additional 2 days but after that it will be put in the bin, unfortunately. I do make an effort to note on the calendar when food is due to be used by to avoid such waste.

Best Before: I ignore and use my eyes/nose/hands to judge.
If veg is looking tired I make it into soup.
I bin shrivelled fruit.
Bread etc I use unless mouldy. Dry bread is fine for toast.

Use By: I will occasionally cook sausages or steak if they're one day over the UB date, unless the oack is 'blown'.
Anything else, inc chicken, milk, fish, I throw away.
If I can't use it in time by the UB date I will freeze it, or cook it into a meal and freeze the meal e.g. chickem curry.

Use by I generally Asher to because that’s a marker of food safety rather than quality.
Let’s say I’m very flexible with best before

I know the difference. I largely ignore them both.

I don't suffer for it.