Gone to waste!

blackbearbosin

Twice a year my local council leave a flyer on one of my many waste bins/bags giving details of the dates of collection.

On the same flyer they say what can and cannot be put into the waste food container.

No problem there.

Amongst the listings this time are --"vegetables and fruit including peel, cores or if it's past its best"

'Past it's best' ???

I can understand when food is unusable because it has long gone by its 'use by date', but past its best!.

I can just imagine seeing people in my area looking on May 18 at say a pack of tomatoes with a Best By date of May 17 and saying to themselves - 'Oh, the council says I have to throw that out'

We are continuously being told not to throw out unnecessary food but to me it seems my local council is being over zealous where foods are concerned.

geerex

So, your council are saying that food "past its best" can't be binned? What are you supposed to do with it?

katipip

geerex wrote: »

So, your council are saying that food "past its best" can't be binned? What are you supposed to do with it?

No - the council are listing what CAN go in the food waste container.

marcarm

To me, past its best is different than past its best before date.

We still eat salad over a week past its best before date, but as it is still edible, it is not past its best.

Edwood_Woodwood

marcarm wrote: »

We still eat salad over a week past its best before date, but as it is still edible, it is not past its best.

You must have guts like asbestos.

Salads are the most potent forms of food poisoning as the bacteria multiplies far greater from day one compared to other food stuffs, including raw meat and eggs.

You don't run an eaterie do you?:eek:

Azari

Edwood_Woodwood wrote: »

Salads are the most potent forms of food poisoning as the bacteria multiplies far greater from day one compared to other food stuffs, including raw meat and eggs.

Please provide a link to back up the bizarre assertion.

If I put a piece of raw meat (unprocessed) into my fridge and leave it a week it will well off.

Salad ingredients will, if fresh when put in, still be perfectly fresh by then.

bod1467

We often use spinach well past it's best-before date ... it tends to keep its condition quite well, as long as you don't let it get wet in the bag.

fairy_lights

'Past it's best' makes sense to me. I don't pay any attention to 'use by' date on fruit and veg, but I might get a lettuce out of the fridge, see that the outer leaves have gone limp and slimy and although the inner leaves are probably still edible it's not very appetising, so think "mmm, this is definitely past it's best" and put it in the recycling. (hypothetically, I'm not a lettuce wastrel in real life!)

blackbearbosin

The point I was trying to make that some people will confuse the council's Past its best advice with Best Before dates. I agree that the best general guide is believe your eyes and nose!

fairy_lights

Will people really though? I'd like to think that most people use their common sense a bit more than that!

juno

blackbearbosin wrote: »

The point I was trying to make that some people will confuse the council's Past its best advice with Best Before dates. I agree that the best general guide is believe your eyes and nose!

It comes across to me that they're trying to be a bit more general than that, ie I'm interpreting it completely the opposite.