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[MSE Natasha]

This is a special discussion as part of the

Cheap Supermarket Shopping


guide, all about buying 'beyond best before' food and drink at a fraction of the usual price.

If you've bought these types of products before, please give us your feedback on:

• What you tried
• Where you got it
• How much it cost
• How far after the best before date it was
• What you thought of it
  
• Any other useful info
  

Just click reply

[mcallister1]

I've bought a variety of things from Approved Food in the last few weeks and my top buys would be-
Hib drinks- 24 for £1- the kids think the flavour is a bit flowery, but they are fragrant I suppose- a bit like Pom? No probs with quality.
Seedy ryvitas- 2 packs for £1 I think-crisp and lovely
Treacle tarts- surpisingly just the same as always.
Tesco kids pasta sauce, which is now run out on the site- 6 jars for 50p- really healthy and a bit like tomato puree in consitency- has a date of June 2008. I got lots but it is going quick.
Honey- from Morocco- 60p. No idea on the best before. Nice- not the runny kind.

I'd really recommend them- if you are thinking of buying from them you may wish to check out this link http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/...html?t=1282695
where we've been discussing the site.

[liz545]

I'll cook with ingredients that are past their date, provided they still look and smell ok; and I'll buy short-dated food in places like the 99p store. I've unknowingly bought diet coke that's past the BBE date before and it tasted odd - sort of flavourless and not as fizzy, wouldn't do that again even if it was super-cheap!

[Flickering Ember]

No word of a lie, I have used sugar that is more than 20 years old. And I'm still alive. Bar meat, most food is fine past its sell by; I have cheese which was meant to expire last November and there's nothing wrong with it (although I do keep it in the fridge), and I have potatoes with a BBE date of 7 December 2008, only 4 of which I've had to throw away. I just cut the "eyes" off before cooking. It's all about common sense. How do you think previous generations without BBEs, fridges and freezers coped?

[guidarufino]

Couldn't agree more, I never take a blind bit of notice of best before dates, they're a total con. Obviously with the exception of things like meat, particularly poultry, my rule is if it hasn't got mould on, it's edible. And even if it has, depending on the food, you can cut the mould off and eat the rest. I've done this many times to bread and cheese and I'm still here and, touch wood, have never had food poisoning. My OH is ridiculous about best before dates and claims that bread instantly tastes completely different once it's past the date. Like as if by magic, today it tastes fine and tomorrow it tastes different just because of some arbitrary date assigned by the manufacturers, it's complete rubbish! As I do most of the cooking, he often eats stuff that's past its best before date, he just doesn't know it!

[creased-leach]

Our dear neighbours are anthropologists. They spend several months a year living with a tribe in Peru 7 hours by canoe from the nearest "civilisation."

Consequentially, they don't waste anything. Some of the stuff I've seen them use has made me raise an eyebrow- but they've taught me a lot. They, and their young son can survive in a humid country with no electricity for fridges etc etc- eating whatever they, and the locals can hunt. They're very fit & healthy- and are usually each guessed to be 10 years younger than they are- gits!

I've never worried too much about BBE dates, and I now use common sense with use by dates.

[suepd]

We had a chicken with a jar of tomatoes/onions/peppers which was best before 1997 - that was Monday and we're still here! My eyes and nose are my guide!

[matt1987]

The best buys that i have had are Amoy chinese sauces for 19p and 29p a packet, these are usually 70 - 80p in the supermarket? Packets of Mint Poppets for 19p, Straight to wok noodles for 39p, and microwaveable Pilao rice for 39p, packet of cadburys cookies for 49p.

Got these from a chain of shop called Home Bargains. There is a thread already on MSE about the chain. There are plenty of bargains to be had on short dated food.

[bill256]

Agree completely with those who would rather trust their common sense and nose to judge whether something is safe to eat. This is particularly true if the item is to be cooked. I would go further - I deliberately keep most supermarket meat till past its sell by date as the red stuff they think we want needs to mature for tenderness and flavour.
There was a TV programme last year where the presenter ate stuff a fortnight out of date and suffered no ill effects. (He also had all the food lab-checked as well). The film also showed a woman binning a bunch of apparently flawless bananas because they were out of date

[gem4]

i was brought up to not waste anything and it's stuck with me. I regularly use jars of pasta sauce from my cupboard that are out of date. I made a rice pudding on sunday with a carton of uht milk dated best before July 07 and the family verdict was 'delicious', same as ever I tasted the milk first of course because I didnt want to waste the rice

I even ignore dates on 'use by' stuff. I regularly eat out of date yoghurts by up to a month and for the last 3 days i've been eating an asda 'good for you' coleslaw with a use by date 1st jan.....I'm still here.

The dates are all rubbish as far as i'm concerned, designed to make you buy more often. I have absolutely no qualmes about buying out of date or short dated stuff....its far cheaper. I go out of my way to look for them.

If I open it and it smells ok and tastes ok then I'll eat it. Hard cheese is kept in the fridge until its all gone, just cut the mould off. Bread is the same, I just cut the mouldy crusts off. Eggs are kept in the fridge months past their date, they just look a bit flat when you crack them

If you use the senses you were born with, you wont go far wrong. Our ancestors managed well enough by taste and smell, we are conditioned into thinking this stuff will give us major food poisoning if its a day over the date printed. Absolute rubbish!

My family are used to me now and dont even bother turning their noses up, I've even converted a few. I'm probably one of the healthiest people I know

[Stranger Than Fiction]

Like others, I trust my sense of smell, taste and instinct. Many foods are fine if they are not opened and obviously common sense comes into play with fresh foods. Having said that, I've bought fresh foods well in date from some of the major supermarkets which were definitely off so a lot of it depends on storage. We're also fit and healthy and not prone to upset tummies. I'm happy to buy things others think won't be good - maybe we should keep it an MSE secret

[SandC]

Ah I'm glad there are people like me around. My ex boyfriend actually snatched some strawberries in a punnet out of my hand and was about to put them in the bin cos they were 'out of date'. I asked him what on earth he used to do as a kid when he'd picked them himself??

I too am like most of you above. If I have meat approaching the use by date and I don't think I'm giong to use it before then I do freeze it, but that's because I've experienced chicken going smelly really quickly after the date on the pack. I so don't like wastage! Nothing wrong with cutting the mould off cheese and nothing wrong with using jars and cans that are years gone. I have never thought to check my salt actually, but it's only tub number 2 (small size) of Saxo bought in the last 15 years so doubtless I should have chucked that out some time ago.

Teabags as well - I'm not a huge drinker of tea at home so when they went out of date too I used them anyway. Nothing wrong with them.

I too (touch wood) have remained sickenly healthy for years and rarely caught any bugs. I can't remember the last time I had an off stomach actually. I really do think that the bacteria is good for you and helps build up an immunity things.

That is also the excuse I use for not bleaching every surface to high heaven.

[creased-leach]

Purely anecdotal of course but my OH used to deliver goods to supermarkets for a HGV firm. One of the runs would be the delivery of cheese which had been refused by the supermarkets back to a factory, for "reprocessing." The reprocessing consisted of cutting off the mould & turning it into kids cheese products. They don't tell you that on the packet


The haulage firms mainstay was cheese. If they had a load in the yard over the course of a weekend, they'd turn the fridges off to save on diesel. There was also an occasion where a pallet of cheese spilt all over the muddy yard.....it was hosed off & re-stacked. Any product is only going to be as good as it's storage.

[davidanddeirdre]

I could write a book about food and durability dates. Remember the law is as it is as a compromise, and to make it easy for EHOs to prosecute the errant food business. The best bargain you will ever buy is out of code hard cheese- it has to have a durability code legally, but the older it gets the better it is! Sometime when I am less busy I will put down more detailed tips, all of which my family uses, we hardly throw any food away, and we rarely get ill with any infections let alone food poisoning.

[kristina2]

My best buy recently was Princes Coronation Tuna & Pineapple selling at 1p per tin from In-store - I bought 8 tins - am still eating it - BB4 date was end of December, had some for lunch today - still good ! My work mates are horrified - they can't understand how I survive as I'm always eating out of date stuff, yoghurts in particular for lunch - yet I'm the one who's NEVER off ill like the rest of them ! Is that what you call GOOD bacteria ??

[dunhillbabe]

On 5th January i finished some Sainsburys 'taste the Difference' Cranberry style coleslaw with a use by date of 24/12/08 (of course I got the other half to do a 'fizzy check' on it first!)

[Celia Fletcher]

I clicked on your 'Approved Foods' link to look at a buying online site. It turns out to be someone called 'Crag's Cash and Carry'. You are meant to register, but I tried to at least 7 times, and it kept saying 'Mailbox unavailable. The server response was: 4.7.1 : Recipient address rejected: Policy Rejection- 274 -- Sender Quota Exceeded.'. Oh well, it was worth a try!

[Stranger Than Fiction]

Originally Posted by Celia Fletcher

I clicked on your 'Approved Foods' link to look at a buying online site. It turns out to be someone called 'Crag's Cash and Carry'. You are meant to register, but I tried to at least 7 times, and it kept saying 'Mailbox unavailable. The server response was: 4.7.1 : Recipient address rejected: Policy Rejection- 274 -- Sender Quota Exceeded.'. Oh well, it was worth a try!

Approved Food have been on Radio 4, the FT and several other newspapers recently so non MSE'rs are finding out about them and I think their server is having problems coping with the massive increase in custom. Their service is second to none and their prices are really good so maybe try again in a couple of days. I think you can actually shop without registering but the website is probably still going to be busy. HTH.

[driver67]

Everybody here has, in my opinion, spoken lots of good sense... the thing that aggravates me most is HONEY having a BBF date! This lasts FOREVER! Honey taken from Egyptian tombs is edible for crying out loud. Just to think of all that honey that must have been thrown away by the unknowing amongst us... A while ago a woman on Johnny Walkers show was decrying BBF dates and said 'you've got a nose on your face haven't you?' That is good enough for me!!

[minniemorris]

Here's some info for you clever folk from the Food Standards Agency website ~ I find this quite satisfying as I too have always been of the opinion that 'best before' dates are a load of rot !


"Best before

'Best before' dates appear on a wide range of frozen, dried, tinned and other foods.

The 'best before' dates are more about quality than safety, except for eggs. So when the date runs out it doesn't mean that the food will be harmful, but it might begin to lose its flavour and texture.

About a third of the food we buy ends up being thrown away and most of this could have been eaten. So think carefully before throwing away food that is past its 'best before' date.

However, you shouldn't eat eggs after the 'best before' date. This is because eggs can contain salmonella bacteria, which could start to multiply after this date.

And remember, the 'best before' date will only be accurate if the food is stored according to the instructions on the label, such as 'store in a cool dry place' or 'keep in the fridge once opened'.

So, if you want to enjoy the food at its best, use it by its 'best before' date and make sure you follow any instructions."



I love it

You've just got to use your head (and eyes and nose !).

I've just cottoned on to buying 'reduced' items and currently shop at Asda (they also have excellent petrol prices, btw ). The bargains and subsequent savings are fantastic ! I buy ready meals (as low as 50p) and stuff that you can freeze (I always check as there are more things that can be frozen than I used to think ~ even some smoked salmon we bought at Christmas!). How I wish I had space for a chest freezer...

In the absence of Asda, I found that Aldis was pretty interesting. If you don't mind non-mainstream brands, there are some bargains to be had.

Damaged tins are always reduced although there is absolutely nothing wrong with the contents... Tonnes of bananas are burnt regularly in South America as they do not meet the standards required by the buyers... I bet the list goes on and on

We've become such a disposable, wasteful society. There are millions of people out there who would eat anything but, unfortunately, they don't live in the vicinity of those who are responsible for the waste

When I was a kid, we used to eat chickens that had turned green (not that I ever saw them, thank goodness!!!). My father was a health inspector (environmental officer) and so had access to a lot of condemned goods. He says, "as long as you cook it thoroughly, it's fine". Well, it must be ~ we're all still here ! (Not that I'd ever attempt that myself !!)

My husband recently gave himself a slight case of salmonella poisoning ~ he fried eggs that were only 3 days past the BBD!! Not something to mess around with..

Also, if you can be bothered, the longer the 'reduced' items are on the shelves, the more they are reduced. I have even witnessed a father and son team haggle with a shop attendant (at Sainsburys) while he was marking the reduced items! They came up with some very interesting arguments as to why he should mark them lower

As for bread and fresh fruit & veg ~ keep it in the fridge - it lasts MUCH longer...bread, over a week (wheat and grain breads last even longer than those with more absorbent properties); most fruit & veg, up to 2 weeks (not bananas ~ these go brown in the fridge). And I buy long-life milk - cheaper and less waste (and you can soon get used to the taste ); jam - just scoop off the top layer of mould if it gets that bad ~ it's just penicillin, afterall!); I definintely keep eggs in the fridge; cheese, as airtight as possible (preferably wrapped as opposed to loose in a tupperware box)..

I'm really glad I found this thread