Use By Dates

Dave_Cudworth

I’m not sure if this is an issue or not (I think it is!).
My wife recently bought a bag of chicken portions from Marks & Spencer. When she checked them at home the next day prior to using some of them, she noticed that the use by date was the previous day – i.e. the day she purchased them.
Am I being unreasonable is saying that although you might expect the sell by date to be close to the purchase date it is unusual (and not very helpful) if the use by date is close to or is the actual purchase date?
Regards
Dave

delain

usually the things that are on their use by date are reduced to sell them quickly, i buy a lot of short dated things and freeze them... If she paid full price then that's a bit off (not that i've ever seen anything reduced in Marks) but the store will say she could have read the label.

JimmyTheWig

I think, unfortunately, it's up to the shopper to check.
But I agree that the gap between "display until" and "use by" is a little odd sometimes.

Halloway

And the chicken would have perfectly OK to eat for several days after the 'use by' date expired.

LeeSouthEast

Bought a pack of 8 bagels from Tesco yesterday. Got them out of the bread bin to have one today and noted the expiry date was the day I bought them! Who the hell eats 8 bagels in one sitting? Not terribly impressed.

That said, you poke up with it. Seems pointless going in to complain about the matter. I just took the one I wanted and froze the rest. I'll defrost and toast as required.

toshkininny

Dave_Cudworth wrote: »

I’m not sure if this is an issue or not (I think it is!).
My wife recently bought a bag of chicken portions from Marks & Spencer. When she checked them at home the next day prior to using some of them, she noticed that the use by date was the previous day – i.e. the day she purchased them.
Am I being unreasonable is saying that although you might expect the sell by date to be close to the purchase date it is unusual (and not very helpful) if the use by date is close to or is the actual purchase date?
Regards
Dave

I don't think you are being unreasonable. Speak to customer services next time you are in M & S. You might get somewhere, if not chalk it up to experience, and make sure that you check the dates with M & S from now on as you will know where you stand with them.

seagull09

May not be an issue for much longer - if I recall correctly there is/was a move afoot to get rid of use by and sell by dates on many food and drink items, to reduce unnecessary waste.

As someone who has actually survived eating fresh fish three days after purchase, bread a week out of date, and tins four years out of date, I quite like the idea that we use our eyes and noses to detect problems rather than a (probably innaccurate) factory ink stamp.

As to the OP's question: most supermarkets will discount same day items (especially if meat or fish) wildly - I got some £2.99 garlic and herb chicken fillets in Morrissons for just 49p on Sunday (and ate them on Tuesday). But if they haven't, there's not really anything legally one can do, though morally you might well enquire at their CS desk why they hadn't.

Bowling_4_Gold

That reminds me, I read an article about a Honeymaker once, who was legally required to put a use-by date on his honey. He remembered that people found edible honey in the egyptian pyramids, so put some silly date like 500 years on his honey.

LeeSouthEast

seagull09 wrote: »

May not be an issue for much longer - if I recall correctly there is/was a move afoot to get rid of use by and sell by dates on many food and drink items, to reduce unnecessary waste.

A valid point. The bagels didn't suddenly self-destruct at midnight last night, of course. I appreciate that. But they do get harder and harder to cut, and more and more chewy as they age. Not too much of an issue for sliced bread, but a royal pain in the !!! with a bagel