Advice Morrisons changing use by date

amandada

jonathonjordan wrote: »

Its actually illegal to change the date on best before and use by dates. Ive spoken to trading standards
Thanks will let u know what happens

34. Can a date mark be altered or
removed?

Regulations 44(1)(e) and 46

34.1 It is an offence to alter or remove a date mark if you are not the manufacturer, packer or EC seller
originally responsible for marking the food.
34.2 It is, however, a defence for anyone so charged to prove that such action was taken with the

written authorisation of a person capable of making the change without breaking the law.
http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/Fguidnot1.pdf

jonathonjordan

Can I sell food after its' 'use by' date?
No, it is a criminal offence to sell food or have food in your possession that is past its 'use by' date. You may sell food marked with a 'use by' date until 12 midnight on the date indicated.
Can I change a 'use by' date?
No, it is a criminal offence to alter or remove a 'use by' date unless you are the person who first applied that date or you have the written authorisation of the person who originally applied that date. You may not freeze the food and sell it after its 'use by' date.
Who is responsible for checking food on sale?
It is the retailer's responsibility to ensure that all foods on sale in his premises are within date. The retailer cannot pass this responsibility on to his supplier, even where food is bought on a sale or return basis. The retailer must ensure that all foods marked with a 'use by' date are checked regularly, preferably daily, and that a record is maintained of that check. Where food is found beyond its 'use by' date it must be removed from sale immediately. Under no circumstances should such food be reduced for quick sale.

Taken from City Council Trading Standards

deanos

jonathonjordan Morrisons are the manafactuers of the bread rolls as they are baked instore so are legally allowed to change the date using the information amandada has given

jd87

And if it was a 'best before' date, not a 'use by' date, then the legislation quoted by jonathonjordan wouldn't apply anyway.

deanos

They are Best Before on Morrisons rolls just had one for my tea

spaceman5

i cant comment on a individual store, but i can say that morrisons is quite hot on dates on there fresh products, i have worked for them for years and did not know quite what went on, but i have recently transferred onto the fish department, and they as a company are quite strict on this, to the point where every store gets an auditer in to the store once every 3 months to inspect every date on all the ffpp, fish, meat, oven fresh, deli, bakery and cafe departments, check all legal documentaion held for that period of 13 weeks and check all the training files of all the staff working on those departments, and if they fail the audit the preverbal really does hit the fan, and they don`t give notice of when they are coming they just turn up, obviously stores can guess roughly when they are due a visit, but they can never tell when the visit will actually happen, so they do take this sort of thing very seriously, so this store would be taking a huge risk if they was doing anything funny, Dave

danger_mouse_2

i know for fact that people have been caught in a branch of morrisons changing dates on the fresh meat, they were simply sacked, its stupidily neglectful and dangerous, they think that its doing the company a favour but it doesnt!

It could have a simple explanation, it may not, but you definatly need to clarify if it was a best before or a use by date as that is what the whole arguement is based on.

Trune

jonathonjordan wrote: »

Can I change a 'use by' date?
No, it is a criminal offence to alter or remove a 'use by' date unless you are the person who first applied that date or you have the written authorisation of the person who originally applied that date. You may not freeze the food and sell it after its 'use by' date.


Taken from City Council Trading Standards

that says use by, not best before, what you've posted is exactly what amanda has already said... the manufactuer can change it.

not to mention use by and best before are totally different statements.

dazrs

I use to work as a baker in a supermarket, Tbh a lot of it is due to managers fault who think they know it all, basically fresh bread only has one day shelf life although it fine to eat for a few days. The store prob shut about 10 at 4pm we prob run out or short of bread, so you get store managers on back why there no bread they tell us to make it, so form scratch it takes a while you looking about an hour to make bread get it all tinned up we have to do it in bulk usually 56 to a batch if i rember. Then let it prove another 45 mins to hour, then bake it 1 to 1/2 hours, then pack it so you looking a good 3-4 hours so it prob about 8pm by time it hits the shelf well by 8 pm it dead not busy you got all this fresh bread and it still has todays date on it, so you got no choice, by the end of the nite you got about 90% of the stock left it cost loads to waste, so there suppose to rewrap it, well in morning you got fresh bread to pack so they jsut stick new dates on which aint good but we can re sell it and and it still less than 24 hours, so if the bread has been relable chances are it was made later in the day like evening. Glad i dont work there any more though.

jonathonjordan

Sorry i had made a mistake - the label said use by date. The manager of the store has been in contact with me this morning with a full apology and he confirmed the stickers should not have been changed and the employer who did this has been spoken to. He also did confirm that it wasnt store policy and it was a staffing error - rubbish.