Out of best before date food - Tesco?

j0annepsi

Tesco are very well known for selling past-use by date food. Last week several of their stores were fined for it.

I wouldn't shop in Tesco if you paid me!

tbw

OlliesDad wrote: »

Not really, i was just responding by asking what the OP felt they should get as they clearly said a refund was not enough.

I also went on to agree that they should not have been on the shelf and they will get what they deserve i.e. a refund.

We'll just have to agree to differ on this - personally I think your tone was terse and unfriendly. It may well be your usual tone and if so, you are far more blunt than me. However, I do appreciate that written comments sometimes do come over more strongly than when a conversataion takes place face to face.

sarahg1969

j0annepsi wrote: »

Tesco are very well known for selling past-use by date food. Last week several of their stores were fined for it.

I wouldn't shop in Tesco if you paid me!

They won't be fined for selling food past its BB date if there's nothing wrong with it, though.

OP, they're probably fine if they're dried. I hope you didn't let them go to waste?

3plus1

Whilst they're probably fine to eat, I'd be annoyed at paying full price for a product past its best before date. I would want a refund, plus assurances that staff would check the remaining products on the shelf and take them away or reduce them accordingly. I wouldn't want compensation beyond what I paid for the product, but I'd like to see them improve their quality control! And next time I went shopping at that branch, I'd pay more attention to the BBE dates on anything I bought...

bookworm1363

BBE is only a legal label, it has no bearing on whether the goods are edible or not. It means "best before", not "unusable after".

In the case of dried mushrooms, they will probably be good until they start disintegrating, frankly. The process of drying foods was developped a long long long time ago when there was no refrigeration around and our cave ancestors used to carry all kind of dried goods, meat, berries and yes mushrooms in order to see them through the lean times, so I wouldn't worry about a BBE date on them.

I have friends who are struggling to make ends meet yet they will discard anything which is on the BBE date, it's just so absurd. Meanwhile, I trust my nose and eyes, yes, even on the "use by", it makes for great savings and I have yet to give food poisoning to my family.

People need to re-learn the art of surviving on their natural instincts and not just following labels.

(the above doesn't absolve Tesco's from their sloppiness however. )

Mrembo

Under the food safety act 1990 the main offences are

* Selling, or possessing for sale, food which does not comply with food safety requirements;
* Rendering food injurious to health
* Selling to the purchasers prejudice, food which is not of the nature or substance or quality demanded;
* And falsely or misleadingly describing or presenting food.

It is my opinion that they have sold you food which is not of the substance and quality you demanded and hence have broken the law.
Best solution is to inform the store so they may improve their procedures and the store may offer you a goodwill gesture

Tozer

bookworm1363 wrote: »

People need to re-learn the art of surviving on their natural instincts and not just following labels.

In fairness, we are talking about buying mushrooms from Tesco, not doing a Bear Grylls surviving on snakes and lizards in the wilderness.

bookworm1363

Very true. :rotfl:

I can sniff out a dodgy chicken in Asda, but I doubt I'd do too well with lizards in the Amazon.

Bookworm63

Two of Tesco's Berkshire stores have just been fined £18,000 for selling out of date food - a drop in the ocean for a big company like Tesco in my opinion.

http://www.heartberkshire.co.uk/Article.asp?id=1238771

Having also inadvertently bought out-of-date food from Tesco, I now try to remember to check the dates on everything I buy. I've lost count of the number of out-of-date items I've taken to the Customer Services desk now.

Out of interest, can anyone tell me how long they are allowed keep their chicken in the hot deli stand for? I've regularly been to Tesco at 7pm when they are still trying to sell whole chickens cooked and labelled at 10am. Personally I wouldn't touch anything that had been kept warm for 9 hours, but so many people don't even look at the labels. I have no idea what the regs are - does anyone know?

Tozer

Bookworm63 wrote: »

Two of Tesco's Berkshire stores have just been fined £18,000 for selling out of date food - a drop in the ocean for a big company like Tesco in my opinion.

http://www.heartberkshire.co.uk/Article.asp?id=1238771

Having also inadvertently bought out-of-date food from Tesco, I now try to remember to check the dates on everything I buy. I've lost count of the number of out-of-date items I've taken to the Customer Services desk now.

Out of interest, can anyone tell me how long they are allowed keep their chicken in the hot deli stand for? I've regularly been to Tesco at 7pm when they are still trying to sell whole chickens cooked and labelled at 10am. Personally I wouldn't touch anything that had been kept warm for 9 hours, but so many people don't even look at the labels. I have no idea what the regs are - does anyone know?

In fairness, I think there is a distinction between sell by date (case you refer to) and best before dates.

Agree though that it is a drop in the ocean for Tesco.