Archive:Quick Questions on food safety / sell by / use by dates

weezl74

Hiya,

Just wanted to say that I thought you were reasonable, and not harrassing the store. This is more about M&S not showing their usual customer care. They usually bend over backwards in their the 'customer is always right' ethos, and it's sad they didn't for you.

My elderly Grannie complained about her meringue nests looking 'nibbled' (we think she'd had them in her cupboard a while, and the mouse was at her house!) and M and S couriered round a bunch of flowers as a 'sorry' gesture!!

And that was only 4 years ago. What a shame the credit crunch is making retailers treat us differently.

IamJen

geri1965 wrote: »

You are completely wrong. :rolleyes:

Use by is a label for perishable foods that can degenerate very quickly and cause risk to health.

You are thinking of best before dates which relate to quality of food.

Yep. I would, however, still use my senses to check out if the food seemed okay. Something one day past the use by date would almost always be okay in our house.

From the FSA:
Best Before:
http://www.eatwell.gov.uk/foodlabels/labellingterms/bestbefore/
Use By:
http://www.eatwell.gov.uk/foodlabels/labellingterms/useby/
Display until:
http://www.eatwell.gov.uk/foodlabels/labellingterms/displayuntil/
Sell by:
http://www.eatwell.gov.uk/foodlabels/labellingterms/sellby/

wrt to their note about Salmonella, I'm not sure why they allow eggs to be sold with "best before", rather than "use by".

Penelope_Penguin

marri_lou wrote: »

What can I do with it? I'm loathe to throw it out, and I can't very well keep it in the fridge for a week until next Thursday. Use by is one of these dodgy ones where I can't eat it after the date can I?

What did you do, Marri I'll add this to the existing thread on Dates to keep ideas together

Penny. x

princesstippytoes

voiceofreason wrote: »

"Ridiculous"?

These dates are added as a guideline for people, and are aimed to help them make decisions.

If they stop just one person getting sick as a result of inadvertently eating bad food, then they're a good thing.

What a silly, arrogant thing you say - very irresponsible.

<EDIT> That said, there will always be people - like the OP - who don't bother to look at the use-by dates, and then complain that they've been somehow hoodwinked. To be strictly correct, the store's well within their rights to do what they've done, and the OP has minimal comeback in this case. And to be fair - if someone cares that much about use-by dates, it's their own fault if they don't keep an eye out when they're buying food.

Not so much of a saving now, is it?

What ARE you talking about?:rotfl: People have a thing called common sense you know. I don't know anyone who has been sick from eating food that was past it's BBD. If something is bad enough to make you sick you will know by looking at it or smelling it.:rolleyes:

Bronnie

weezl74 wrote: »

Hiya,

Just wanted to say that I thought you were reasonable, and not harrassing the store. This is more about M&S not showing their usual customer care. They usually bend over backwards in their the 'customer is always right' ethos, and it's sad they didn't for you.

My elderly Grannie complained about her meringue nests looking 'nibbled' (we think she'd had them in her cupboard a while, and the mouse was at her house!) and M and S couriered round a bunch of flowers as a 'sorry' gesture!!

And that was only 4 years ago. What a shame the credit crunch is making retailers treat us differently.

TBH I don't think it's the credit crunch, I think the proliferation of people who are out to abuse the system in shops, insurance claims etc (and I don't mean people with a legitimate cause for complaint) have made many companies more wary today, unfortunately to the detriment of people with genuine points to raise.

marri_lou

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

What did you do, Marri I'll add this to the existing thread on Dates to keep ideas together

Penny. x

Well to be honest I ate it. The beef and black bean was lovely. No ill effects so far either.

M&S sent me this reply back too. Fair enough, I wasn't really expecting anything more involved to be honest.

Dear Marri_lou

Thank you for contacting us regarding the use by dates on your Chinese box meal. I am sorry you felt disappointed.

Although some of our stores do decide to reduce the price on products they sell on the 'display until' date, this is not currently one of our policies and is left up the discretion of the store. We do however mark all our food items with the use by/display until date so that our customer or able to make a decision of whether to purchase an item.

Having said that we always welcome feedback about improvements we can make and I have passed your comments on to our policy team for them to consider.

Thanks again for getting in touch.

Kind regards,

nesssie1702

There seems to be a little bit of confusion about Use By and Best Before Dates here.

Legally speaking (according to the Food Labelling Regulations 1996, as amended) it is illegal for a food premises to sell food after the Use By date has expired. Use By is applied to high risk foodstuffs that have the potential to cause food poisoning, e.g. meat, meat products, fish, some dairy products, chilled ready meals etc.

Best before dates are the manufacturer's "guarantee" that the product will be in it's best condition if you eat it before the date on the pack, jar, can. Eating it after this date may result in soft crisps or biscuits, but it won't harm you. Likewise it's the same with baby food in jars that are marked with a Best before date, admittedly it's not good press for the shop that's sold the out of date baby food, but it's not going to harm the wee one, unless the packaging integrity is damaged.

Whilst you can see mould on food, generally it will not make you ill unless you are allergic to penicillin etc However, you cannot see or smell pathogenic bacteria (the ones that give you food poisoning). So, there is a risk with eating food after the Use By date. However, that risk will vary according to the food type and how long after the Use By date it is.

Whilst our mothers and grandmothers didn't have dates on their food, neither did they go shopping just once a week or a fortnight. Mostly a fridge was a luxury, so food was kept in the north facing pantry and bought on a near daily basis, or dried or salted to prolong it's life.

kazmc

Hi there everyone
Do you think it would be ok to make up some fishcakes this evening, just with mash and tinned tuna and leave them in the fridge to cook for tomorrow nights dinner??
Thanks as ever
Karen

La-Cara

don't see why they wouldn't be ok tomorrow, I can hardly see them going off that quickly. Obviously if they smell or look funny by tomorrow then I wouldn't risk it

kazmc

La-Cara wrote: »

don't see why they wouldn't be ok tomorrow, I can hardly see them going off that quickly. Obviously if they smell or look funny by tomorrow then I wouldn't risk it

Thanks very much, I thought they would be ok. My problem is though that I do not have a sense of smell (born like it :eek: ) so I'm REALLY careful over what I keepand for how long, but as I am slowly trying to become a OS convert I'm finding it a bit more difficult as my food now doesnt have 'use by' dates on!:D