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 family have a bit of a habit of freaking out at things beyond best before dates. My DH has been known to eat his way through a 4 pack of yogurt as they were a day out of date. I was a bit annoyed as they would have been fine for a few more days! I'm more careful with meat products but use a bit of common sense. I'll also freeze a pack of chicken if it is in the fridge but not going to be used by the date. We rarely throw out food. I also don't over shop. I'm not super organised with meal planners or anything but only buy in a manageable amount of food and shop regularly.

We meal plan before doing an online shop meaning that we only buy what we expect to use. We also only plan for 6 nights rather than 7 and forage on the unplanned meal night, this makes sure we use up any leftovers or bits which might be about to go out of date. I try to check dates on items regularly and freeze anything that won't get used in time

The Smell test works for me with most things, Chicken, pork and fish i wouldnt use if its a day before it's use by date just too risky. Bread milk yoghurts eggs and cheese i would use after its use by date if it smelt and looked okay. I dont have a stock load of tinned foods so have no problem with dates on tins

I ignore best before and view use by as a guide, preferring to use my own judgement and the sniff test!

Avoid buying meat/fish/egg products on or near Use By date unless going to use within hours and will throw away anything after past Use By date. Fruit and veg will check if after date and throw if deteriorating or use. However will use food after Best Before if unopened and looks/smells normal.

I tend to ignore best before and and use the use by as a guideline.things like milk/bread Can be worked out using common sense and a good look/smell. Often use the freezer to prolong the life of something.

Best before, well it means just that, it might taste best before that date but is perfectly harmless (in most cases) to eat afterwards. Tinned goods last ages after a BB date so we tend to ignore these in our house. If we have cakes or biscuits that are past their BB date we use them in trifle/cheesecake/ice cream toppings, as most of the time they are just a little bit dry.

Bread / cheese - we use the look and sniff test like many others on here. again plenty of uses for stale bread - breadcrumbs, bread & butter pudding, summer pudding etc..... Cheese thats a bit dry is great for grating on shepherds pie or into cheese sauce (which could then be frozen).

Use by on raw meat and fish I tend to follow although I may use it one day after but otherwise I freeze or cold and use cold in salads etc. Other good like milk, yoghurt etc we sniff, then a quick taste is usually enough for us to decide if it is still good. We do use yoghurt past its use by date to make frozen yoghurt lollies for the kids or smoothies etc.

To be honest I think sometimes these dates are there as a safety net for the supermakets but given the articles re fresh fish thats not so fresh I do think that perhaps with raw meat/fish a bit of common sense and care is needed as there is no way to tell when it was caught/slaughtered so it could already be a good few days old before it makes it to the supermarket and then if normally has a shelf life of another few days......

I ignore both. We need to rely on our own senses to check if food is ok to eat. I buy lots of reduced food, freeze if I can't eat within a few days. Best before and eat by dates fuel the food industry and are the main reasons for food waste

I'm more cautious with things for the children than for me. The date thing can make you think you shouldn't eat something that is actually fine - but sometimes I end up binning stuff that is probably perfectly ok as I think it's not worth risking food poisoning! My father in law who is a retired chef never goes by dates and relies entirely on smell and touch. I have to admit that it's easy for us to not waste too much as we have a big freezer. If you don't have that it's much more difficult. If you have yoghurt about to go off, you can make yoghurt lollies with them.

We use the smell method here!!

Meat is frozen and I'm a fan of yellow sticker

I mainly freeze things that are close to their dates or use them up in other recipes. Most things are fine a day or two after the date, just need to use a bit of common sense. The only thing I'm wary of is raw chicken or fish.

I know the difference between best by and use by dates. Best by is just when it's recommended for the product to be eaten for the best flavor/texture, etc. Use by dates are where it's recommended to eat before it goes bad. I tend to stick to both Use By and Best By dates.

I normally completely ignore the dates on fruit and vegetables as it's quite obvious when it has gone bad or isn't something you'd want to eat. Foods most likely to go in the bin past the Best By date is crisps.

We use the freezer a lot to help us with not binning food.

I go on sight and smell for whether a food is good to be eaten. Humans kept and stored food long before these dates came into being and used their senses to keep themselves well. I think it’s a useful guide but no more than that.

I go on sight and smell for whether a food is good to be eaten. Humans kept and stored food long before these dates came into being and used their senses to keep themselves well. I think it’s a useful guide but no more than that.

I use both best before and use by dates as a guide rather than a rule now although I did previously used to adhere to them.

I changed after chatting with colleagues and comparing what they do as I was sick of the waste. I use it as a guide since I realised I've binned stuff that was in date but clearly smelt off so if I rely on my nose then surely the same applies for out of date items that look ok.

I'm sure the dates used are a cautious one but it's a shame so many follow them to the letter and as a result it creates so much waste.

I use sight and smell to judge whether a food is ok tone eaten. Humans used their senses long before these dates came unto fruition to keep themselves well. I think these dates are a guide and nothing more.

If it’s fluffy mould, the whole lot goes in the bin...!

I tend to still eat the majority of food that's gone out of date, especially fruit and veg. Chicken and meat I'll use if it looks and smells OK but I never eat fish/seafood past it's use by.
I check the freshness of any left over eggs by placing them in a bowl of water, if they sink they're good to eat but if they float they're off so I bin them. I also look at the yolks when I've cracked them, if they're plump and perky they're fresh, a little flatter not as fresh but still ok, pancake flat not OK so bin.

I don’t tend to take any notice of Best before dates. I’m more aware of use by as these tend to be on fresh goods that could cause illness etc if eaten when off. That said, I’m not religious about them. I rely heavily on my senses. If it looks and smells ok then I’d still probably eat it!

The things I tend to chuck most are salad ( it goes so limp and “juicy” very quickly), bananas - I always think we’ll eat them but we never do. Sometimes I’ll make banana bread to use them up.

I use fish and chicken within a day of the use by date. Everything else I just go by how it looks or smells. Eggs last a long time past the use by date, just chack that they sink and don't float.

I don't think best before dates should be used.

I think there's been so much publicity about the difference between "sell by" "use by" and "best before" dates that there's really no excuse for not knowing the difference. It's also something my 12 year old recently covered in Home Economics at school.

I do check dates and am cautious with foods which I know to be higher risk for food poisoning - meat and dairy mostly. Totally disregard use by dates on fruit and veg and happy to eat things well after their best before date too. Regualrly fill the freezer with stuff boguht in the reduced to clear which is going out of date that day, freeze it and happy to eat it at a later date.

I’m more cautious than I used to be since eating some supermarket hummous one day past it’s use by date, but it was still sealed. Smelled and tasted absolutely fine. I was really sick and that was the only thing that could have caused it.

However usually I’m a “Go by my nose” person...

I guess that Sainsbury's are looking to see if people treat use by and best before differently, and I do. I pay far more attention to use by dates on fresh produce, but I don't treat those dates as an absolute cut off.

My model, growing up was DM who shopped 6 days a week at the greengrocer, the butcher and the bakery. None of that produce came with any kind of date. So DM taught me how to make a judgement.

Fish - I use fresh on the day or frozen
Meat - again I freeze if I'm not going to use before the UB date and freeze any cooked leftovers
Dairy - generally follow UB dates except for cheese which is freezeable
Fruit and veg - ignore dates and go by sight and texture. It's always going to be bttter fresh, but is mostly useable unless mouldy or slimey. I'll compote fresh fruit to use in porridge and add veg to a stew or curry.

I'll also swap meals around to use up whatever has the closest date first. So today's dinner will use the mushrooms that are BB tomorrow

I have a sniff and freeze it if near its use by date .

Best before just means it may not taste its best if used after

what on earth did we do before these came out ? why are we not dead all dead ?

sometimes I think the whole thing is a con just to get us to buy more