Are supermarkets allowed to sell foodstuffs that are beyond the 'Best Before' date?
For example, a loaf of bread that has a Best Before date of 01-Jan-07 is still on the selves on 02-Jan-07.
Are supermarkets allowed to sell foodstuffs that are beyond the 'Best Before' date?
For example, a loaf of bread that has a Best Before date of 01-Jan-07 is still on the selves on 02-Jan-07.
nope![]()
No they are definitely not allowed to do that. You could report the supermarket, and they could get fined about £5,000 for each item found past its use by date.
wrong if it's "best before" & not "use by".
http://www.eatwell.gov.uk/asksam/foo...rules/#A220030
Quite right. 'best before' is about food quality, whereas 'use by' is about food safety, and usually applies to products that deteriorate rapidly, like meat, most dairy products, etc.
It's not illegal to sell after a 'best before' date, though it'll usually be at a substantial discount. It is illegal to sell after the 'use by' date.
Personally, I'm quite happy to use bread after the "best before" date, but I use it for toast, making croutons, bread pudding, etc. If I want a loaf for sandwiches, I want fresh simply because it tastes better.
Thanks for all the information.
I ordered my weekly shopping online from one of the major supermarkets and, unusually, the bread that they supplied was beyond its 'Best Before' date.
I called their customer services and they immediately refunded the cost of the bread (which wasn't a big deal!) but, more importantly, they were going to contact the store and ensure that the manager speaks to the 'pickers' who do the shopping for online customers and ensure that products beyond their Best Before date are not picked.
The overall online service from this particular supermarket is exceptional and on the very few occasions that I have had cause for complaint, their customer services people have been very courteous and offer refunds (and even refund the delivery fee) without any questions.
That speaks volumes. I've often felt that how a shop reacts to a customer service issue tells you far more about them than how often you get a customer service issue does. Any store can make the occasional goof, but prompt and effective action when they do makes all the difference in the world. That is what gets loyalty and repeat business from me.
For instance, I've been buying my car hifi from the same shop for 30 years. I know I could knock prices down a bit by shopping around, or mail-order, but I know I'll be looked after if I have a problem with my usual place, and it's worth paying a bit over the odds for that assurance.
I used to work at Asda on Produce at nights. I know most of the "pickers" worked the same shift (2200 - 0700) as me. The first job of the night was rotating the stock and taking off the out of date stuff. You might have been unlucky with the pickers getting the old stuff before they got taken off. However, the ones I worked with were sensible and would check the date, or wait until I got the new stuff out. Also, I seem to remember items with "Use By" dates got removed a day earlier than "Best Before" items.
Heres something you may not know, on bread the best before
date sometimes has a (2) next to it this is what the display
until date is. So best before 5/1/07 (2) means display until
3/1/7
I think you find that on hovis and kingsmill stuff.
It's all a conspiracy to get you to throw away food and buy more to replace it, and you can eat basically everything days past it's use-by date. We're rubbish at organising shopping trips/meals in so we always have to eat what is nearest to having to be thrown out, and everything is past date or just about to be![]()
Just use common sense; if milk smells bad it's off, meat gets a distinctive taste and texture once it's turned ('matured' if you're posh) but you don't necessarily even notice it if it isn't too long gone and it most likely won't harm you anyway (and if you've ever eaten a kebab or take-away then you have eaten faaaar worse).
How did the human race survive before supermarkets were invented....?![]()
Nothing like green bread! yum yum
Also have you ever noticed that at around Christmas time the
code life of stuff gets longer? did they suddenly make the
supply chain more efficient? did they bollocks, they just put
shorter codes on normally to make you buy more often.
My bread will usually last around 5 days after the best-before date.
If you only open the packet as little as you need so to keep the air in there from mixing with outside, then squeeze excess air out before sealing it then it lasts a lot longer.
1.21 GIGAWATTS!!!!!
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