Sell-by dates to be scrapped.

frugal_shopper_2

Smidster wrote: »

I took a look around the Fruit/Veg this morning - all Display Until dates so the days of bargain fruit is history - best go to the junk processed stuff then?

There has never been a legal requirement to date mark fresh fruit & veg. Supermarkets will inevitably still reduce it once it reaches the same age it currently does when it hits the display until, they simply won't be permitted to display those dates on it anymore.
It is possible they will choose to print best before dates on fruit & veg even though there is no obligation to do so in the same way many supermarkets already do with alcoholic drinks, vinegar, instore bakery items etc... which are not required to be date marked either in the hope that customers will discard perfectly good products & buy more unnecessarily but even if they did that it wouldn't affect the amount of reductions made instore.

Smidster

frugal_shopper wrote: »

There has never been a legal requirement to date mark fresh fruit & veg. Supermarkets will inevitably still reduce it once it reaches the same age it currently does when it hits the display until, they simply won't be permitted to display those dates on it anymore.
It is possible they will choose to print best before dates on fruit & veg even though there is no obligation to do so in the same way many supermarkets already do with alcoholic drinks, vinegar, instore bakery items etc... which are not required to be date marked either in the hope that customers will discard perfectly good products & buy more unnecessarily but even if they did that it wouldn't affect the amount of reductions made instore.

You clearly have more faith in the supermarkets than I do.

I simply see them leaving them on the shelves at full price in order to inflate profits yet further.

frugal_shopper_2

It is extremely rare for me to enter a supermarket accompanying someone else nevermind actually shop for myself in them.
The only reason the supermarkets choose to put a display until date on a product is for stock control purposes, now they are being told not to do that they will simply find another method to use for stock control, whether the date is there or not will make no difference to how long they leave a product sat on a shelf. If supermarkets wanted to leave food on the shelves at full price while it is past it's best they would already be doing it.
As long as the food is not past the use by (or in the case of eggs 1 week prior to the best before) dates then they would not be doing anything wrong by selling it, the use by/display until dates are used purely through their own choice for stock control purposes & best before refers purely to optimum product quality (eggs being an exception). Supermarkets already choose to sell food whilst it is still at optimum quality so there is no reason to suspect that will change purely because their stock control dates are being scrapped.

sheeps68

I personally cannot believe it will have much impact on people. Surely people have common sense here and can understand the basic sell by and use dates. Not to mention using ones brain and nose!

Queenriderbrekke

It's not to stop food waste within the home, it's to try and stop supermarket food waste!

thriftymanc

I buy reductions from my local Tesco and Waitrose, and they both seem to reduce most of the food on the actual "use by" date, so I can't see that reductions are going to disappear. I just checked all the reduced food in my kitchen at the moment and not a single item has a "sell by" date on anyway!

LadyDee

thriftymanc wrote: »

I buy reductions from my local Tesco and Waitrose, and they both seem to reduce most of the food on the actual "use by" date, so I can't see that reductions are going to disappear. I just checked all the reduced food in my kitchen at the moment and not a single item has a "sell by" date on anyway!

The reduced mushrooms and cole slaw I purchased from Tesco yesterday (15th) are both marked 'display until 16th', effectively having a 'sell by' date of 16th.

real1314

Smidster wrote: »

You clearly have more faith in the supermarkets than I do.

I simply see them leaving them on the shelves at full price in order to inflate profits yet further.

However the canny shopper, faced with two dozen pacls of mushrooms, will pick the one with the longest use-by date, leaving the one that has 1 day to go.
This is what happens now.

I don't actually think anywhere still uses "Sell By" do they?