Cost of living: One in five eating food beyond use-by date

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Maybe I am not looking very hard (or not eating the type of food that can go off) but I don't see many use be dates on food.
Maybe it is on more meat products because, I can see that you wouldn't want to eat mouldy chicken but I don't eat meat and most of the fish I eat is frozen ... but not when eat it. Ewww now I am thinking about sucking a cod lolly 😱
 
The milk I buy has a Use by date, not a Best before. Which is mad, because it's frequently fine up to a week past the date. And not that you can do this with modern homogenised milk, but when I was younger, if I had a pint go off because it arrived after I’d gone to work and stood in the sun all day, I’d just make cream cheese with the curds and use the whey for scones. A piece of muslin was standard kitchen equipment back then.
 
Robin said:
The milk I buy has a Use by date, not a Best before. Which is mad, because it's frequently fine up to a week past the date.
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I think use-by will be under standard conditions and when setting it they prob have to take thousands of samples to get an average. plus, (with things like milk) there will be a safety margin, plus another safety margin given that it's a thing that's usually had "raw" (from an end-user perspective).

milk that's slightly off might be fine for you and me but is it going to be fine for everyone?
 
void said:
I think use-by will be under standard conditions and when setting it they prob have to take thousands of samples to get an average. plus, (with things like milk) there will be a safety margin, plus another safety margin given that it's a thing that's usually had "raw" (from an end-user perspective).

milk that's slightly off might be fine for you and me but is it going to be fine for everyone?
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I think they also assume it’s been left in a hot car for a couple of hours.
 
The push for reduction in preservatives in products means that so many things which used to be kept on the shelf in the pantry (remember them) or in a cupboard now say refrigerate after opening. My fridge is full of bottles and jars.
I refuse to keep tomato ketchup in the fridge.
 
void said:
really? which things? I thought food couldn't be sold without it.
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It’s a bit of a mixed picture at the moment.

Mushrooms certainly only have letter and number codes now (eg J15 was last week‘s delivery and J16 is the one that’s just come in.

Broccoli still has a date on it. I think Cauliflower might have a code though?!

I’m not sure if it’s because they are rolling it out gradually, or if it will always be that chaotic!
 
No secret love me marmite, this week shocked to see it go up to £3 & over in some places, seen Aldi do own version so thought why not give it a try.

Had some on toast this morning, OK nothing beats Marmite but this is really good & spreads much easier, jar is tiny bit smaller at 240g compared to Marmite at 250g, big difference is cost as Aldi's is £1.89 so savings there to be made.

Probably will still go back to Marmite but this is worth mentioning.
 
everydayupsanddowns said:
It’s a bit of a mixed picture at the moment.

Mushrooms certainly only have letter and number codes now (eg J15 was last week‘s delivery and J16 is the one that’s just come in.

Broccoli still has a date on it. I think Cauliflower might have a code though?!

I’m not sure if it’s because they are rolling it out gradually, or if it will always be that chaotic!
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I've found some reasons for this.

1. the legislation covering food freshness (so: best-before) was mainly an EU thing
2. lorries delivering food have become fewer, there's fewer drivers generally (no cabotage now)
3. there are no restrictions on food entering *FROM* the eu at the moment because the UK has delayed (3? or 4 times now) its imposition of phytosanitary checks etc so we get everything eu supermarkets wouldn't stand for (it also keeps prices down).
4. the food being imported (from everywhere) takes longer to arrive because of [2]

Notice the empty shelves in some supermarkets particularly for fresh fruit & veg, and the wait and delay for some essential medicines. Not an issue elsewhere, just here. Also, what's bought doesn't last as long, (especially fruit, from what I've experienced)
 
void said:
I've found some reasons for this.

1. the legislation covering food freshness (so: best-before) was mainly an EU thing
2. lorries delivering food have become fewer, there's fewer drivers generally (no cabotage now)
3. there are no restrictions on food entering *FROM* the eu at the moment because the UK has delayed (3? or 4 times now) its imposition of phytosanitary checks etc so we get everything eu supermarkets wouldn't stand for (it also keeps prices down).
4. the food being imported (from everywhere) takes longer to arrive because of [2]

Notice the empty shelves in some supermarkets particularly for fresh fruit & veg, and the wait and delay for some essential medicines. Not an issue elsewhere, just here. Also, what's bought doesn't last as long, (especially fruit, from what I've experienced)
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It's always been a mixed bag on legislation.
Mostly standardisation was to cover packaging being acceptable across borders.
Now it isn't anymore, the spec for UK food can be relaxed to well under the previous labelling standards.
(Hence the slimy mushrooms that seem to be prevalent now, obviously imports aren't checked any more)
Having said that, the EU is intending to refine labelling in the near future, to avoid the wastage from "best before" as opposed to "use by"
 
I think it's kinda depressing now how we're supposed to accept substandard everything in future.
 
void said:
I think it's kinda depressing now how we're supposed to accept substandard everything in future.
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I guess we found the level we wanted to set for ourselves?

And with some clever marketing, we seem to have gone from straight veg, to wonky veg, to selling them as normal veg again, so people don't feel they are second best. And with no date on them. :rofl:
 
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