Ask the Food Standards Agency experts your questions about use by dates - £200 voucher to be won

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We’ve all been there. You’re rummaging in the fridge for something to eat and right at the back you discover something that you forgot you bought. On closer inspection, the use by date has passed by a few days but you decide to eat it as it looks and smells fine and you’d rather not let it go to waste. However, use by dates are the best indicators of whether food is safe to eat or not, so it’s important to stop and consider if we’re putting ourselves at risk of feeling unwell.

Whether you’d like to know the difference between a best before date and a use by date, how to make safer decisions when deciphering food labelling terms, or whether consequences of ignoring the dates on the pack will affect the quality of your food or how well you feel, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) experts will be online on 24th March to answer your questions.

Here’s what the Food Standards Agency has to say: “Last year, our Covid-19 Consumer Tracker* highlighted that more people are eating food after its ‘use-by’ date, particularly families and those aged over 65 years old. It’s important to understand that different products can undergo different manufacturing processes and this can affect how perishable they are. For example, yoghurts may have a use-by date or best before date, so it is important to always follow the manufacturer’s advice. It is safe for people to eat food after its best before date, but a use-by date is a safety marker, eating food after this date can cause food poisoning.”

Want to know who will be responding to your questions and comments? Find out more about the Food Standards Agency’s experts below:

Narriman Looch - Head of Foodborne Disease Control Branch at the FSA
Narriman Looch is the Head of Animal Feed and Foodborne Disease Control Branch at the FSA. She leads the team responsible for developing policy in response to rises in human cases of foodborne illness, this includes developing guidance and advice for consumers.

Robin May - Chief Scientific Adviser at the FSA
Robin May is the Food Standards Agency’s Chief Scientific Adviser and a Professor of Infectious Disease at the University of Birmingham. As the FSA’s Chief Scientific Adviser, Robin provides expert scientific advice to the UK government and plays a critical role in helping to understand how scientific developments will shape the work of the FSA.

Helen White - Special Advisor, Household Food Waste, WRAP
Helen works with food retailers, manufacturers and brands on engaging with citizens to reduce food waste and is WRAP’s spokesperson on household food waste-related matters. She has played a key role in defining WRAP’s approach to citizen food waste prevention and the development of the Love Food Hate Waste campaign.

All who post a question on this thread will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £200 voucher for the store of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

Insight Terms and Conditions apply

^*www.food.gov.uk/news-alerts/news/covid-19-consumer-tracker-waves-three-and-four-report-published^

What about store cupboard ingredients like baking soda etc, how past the BB date can they be?

@PL15namechange

Thanks! Good to know

1. What is the purpose of a 'display until' date on products such as eggs? Is it the same as a best before date?
2. Are there any foods that will never expire (or at least not for many, many years)?

I read something about shop bought sliced bread potentially going mouldy before you can see it. If this is the case, how do you know if the loaf is still safe to eat if it’s past it’s sell/use by date?

If we are being encouraged to choose healthier foods, cook from scratch more often and waste less, then teaching children how to use look, sniff, taste tests is going to be even more necessary.

Does the FSA coordinate or share information with schools/education centres/services for looked after children to help all children learn how to use their senses to buy, store, cook, eat food without date stickers?

The added pressures of Covid/Brexit means we for sure are buying more local, and as PP says butchers don’t always have dates on fresh meat, or local fruit & veg shops where items are loose.

If children are helped to learn to trust their own senses then they’d be safer and we’d have less packaging & less food waste. Is the FSA supportive/inclusive of teaching these methods?

Hello FSA Experts

My question is:
If I have a packet of fresh meat bought from a supermarket that has reached its use by date, can I freeze it as it is or should I open it up beforehand just to double check its definitely OK before freezing? If the meat had already started to turn and I froze it without checking, could the freezing process mask this, e.g. smell, appearance, and make it harder to identify once defrosted?

Many thanks.

Which processed food ingredients are the most liable to make us ill?

@DingDingTriangle
Interesting. I often find something going out of date in the fridge and bung it in the freezer without checking it. But I do worry a bit.

Oh an is it true cut onions and cooked rice are the two most bacteria laden foods in the fridge?

Does cooking something extend it's lifespan? For instance cooking a chicken on the day of it's use by date is it still use by that day or can it be longer now it's cooked?

I'm so paranoid about rice and food-poisoning, because I can never remember the hygiene instructions that apply to cooked, to raw, to reheated...It's the same with bears: one type you play dead with, and another type you run away from...oh, and some can climb trees and some don't. But WHICH IS WHICH? 🤷‍♀️

What's the acceptable rules around frozen items and their sell by dates? We eat eg chicken nuggets that have been defrosted appropriately long after their use by dates are up...are there any formal rules about this?

What assurance do I have as a customer that the date the meat was packaged and to be used by is correct - there was a scandal a few years ago I believe, with dates being altered.
Do, in your experience, supermarkets have good quality assurance procedures in place to ensure that the dates are correct - I have recently had fish and meat - both have been stored correctly and are not fit for cooking - the smell test told me they were off - the packing told me they were not.

If you think a food item has caused foor positioning, where is the best place to report this?

Is there a need for 'use by' dates on tinned produce?
Someone i know who worked in a well known brand factory of tinned goods said they had to remove and re-date tinned goods on more than one occasion with longer time stamps.

Is it safe to freeze meat which is at is use by date, and if so - how should I defrost safely - I love to buy from the reduced section to save the pennies

Why do prepackaged fruit and veg all have a best before/use by date on but loose veg don't have this? Surely if its not needed for the loose produce then it's not needed for the prepackaged

It would cut down on a lot of waste if it was removed from the prepackaged stuff, both from supermarkets not being able to sell it and from people throwing it out because of the date when it's perfectly fine and you could get another few weeks out of it yet!

It's very easy to tell with fruit and veg whether it's fresh or not, and even when it's past its best it can be used for soups and smoothies. Takes a long time for fruit and veg to go bad if stored correctly, and it's easy to tell when it has

How many people died from food poisoning in the 60s where nothing had use by or best before dates compared to now?

Why does my supermarket fruit go mouldy before it's soft enough to eat? I threw away a punnet of nectarines this week, mouldy but still like bricks!

If my milk is 'on the turn' and I use it for rice pudding, it tastes fine, will it do me any harm or is cooking enough to kill the bacteria?

I've noticed if you buy veg in the supermarket that is in bags that can go right in the microwave they have use by dates on them (as opposed to buying a whole brocolli for example) however I've always thought you got a bit of 'give' regarding veg. Do they have use-by dates because they're pre-prepared in bags or would it be safe to do a judgement call on if they're say a day out of date and look fine then just eat them anyway? I hate throwing out what could be perfectly good veg for what seems like an arbitrary date on the packaging but equally find these little bags much more convenient than buying a whole brocolli or cabbage when I'm only cooking for me. Been wondering this for ages.

Please can you settle an ongoing debate between my husband and I. I say if food goes into the freezer it’s ok for a very long time. He goes into the freezer and throws away food randomly. It’s so wasteful. What’s the correct rule for frozen food please?

Hello, I have just had poached eggs on toast for lunch, the eggs were from the same box with a use by date of the 17th March (today is the 10th of March).
The seemed fine dropped into the water, but when I cut into the first, it was obviously off - it looked fine, but smelled bad, the second was fine - I just scooped the bad egg and toast into the bin and had a light lunch.

What is the best way to tell your egg is off before cooking (this would have been much worse if i'd been baking a cake and dropped the egg into the mixture - so I'll be breaking in a cup from now on).

I have always understood that the use by is the more important date to follow. But with the best before date, is there a limit to how long you can really stretch that out for?!

Potentially looking to moving to grange over sands area and was just wanting to know what the community was like, schools ECT any personal reveiws. I enjoy travelling so looking forward to the lakes ECT but never been before! I would also appreciate if anyone knew where the nearest safe beach to play and build a sand castle for my little one as I've heard grange is dangerous sands or is there none? Or where you take your children for outdoor or indoor fun. With covid we have not been able to visit as much as we would have liked to really understand the areas, barrow, ulverston, grange, are just the few we have heard of during house hunting. Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

What are your views on cling film to wrap food which is being stored after cooking ? Is it more unsafe than tin foil or wax wraps ?

How do people know the use by date for something is correct? For example, like a PP said, if something is fine on the 10th how on the 11th is it going to cause enough damage to potentially give you food poisoning? Should we be more mindful not to eat anything close to the use by date just incase?