MoneySaving Poll:When do you chuck away best-before foods?

I voted the second option but if I was really honest I would have to say it depends on the product. Fish I don't use after the use by date & am cautious even then, meat I'd use a couple of days over if it looked/smelt alright and be cautious also re the source. Fruit & veg I would use until it was obviously not a good idea. I think a lot of these choices are down to what has ever made you ill. I have been ill several times from fish WELL within its use by date, so I am very cautious about fish.

I usually buy BBE foods after their date and eat them whenever.

No need to waste food when many are starving elsewhere

I am a big fan of using common sense, we managed fine before we had these dates, no freezers or even fridges, look,smell, taste.

I buy a lot of my food reduced on the best before date as you can get some mega bargains this way.

Like others, I found this a bit hard to answer because it varies so much between types of food.

Dairy stuff (except for cheese) I tend to stick to the date - and in fact milk occasionally smells off before the date in which case I chuck it. Can't stand off milk.

Mincing meat (including making sausages, burgers, etc) mixes bacteria right into the middle of it, so I tend to ditch these a day or two after use by. Solid cuts of meat I will keep a bit longer, going by smell and appearance rather than date.

For some reason I'm not worried about cheese going off - I'll keep that till it's visibly growing hair, and sometimes cut off the bad bits and eat the rest. Fancy French cheese does sometimes start tasting funny before growing (extra) mould on the surface; if so I give up on it at that point.

Fruit and veg I go entirely on looks - and because the dates on it from the supermarket are quite short and I don't shop that often, I'm probably eating it "out of date" more often than in-date! It's always fine.

Dry packet stuff I'll happily use months out of date as long as it looks ok.

Cooking something restarts the clock - I'll give leftovers a few days even if the ingredients would have been chucked if not cooked. The exception is rice and couscous - these start growing nasty stuff very quickly and they're cheap anyway, so I don't keep leftovers of them.

Don't remember ever getting ill from bad food at home.

Pete