Is the 'date' to eat by, use by etc. more confusing than helpful?

freyasmum

I think so many people have lost touch with food and how to deal with it. Perhaps due to the advent and ready-availability of manufactured food products, or refrigeration. I'm not sure whether it's the use by dates themselves, or the general lack of nous with regards cooking from fresh at home, but food seems to have become somewhat 'mystical' these days; people watch bakeoff in disbelief that you can actually make teacakes or marshmallows at home. It seems to be a held belief that they need to be baked by a big company.

I have yogurt in my fridge with the use by date being sometime in early December; it's still fine.

poppystar

I tend to follow the advice on meat etc but as far as fruit or veg are concerned I use my eyes and touch. After all if I buy these from the greengrocers they have no date of any sort on them!

I have seen fruit, berries in particular with different dates on in the supermarket but which are clearly ripening in the opposite order - unripe with the closer date, going a bit off with a longer date. I do wonder if they put the date on the packs according to when packed rather than when picked.

Caterina

I am watching the re-runs of Wartime Farm on catch up and loved the scene when Ruth finds the milk (a bucket full ) has gone off, she makes cottage cheese with it. Exactly what I'd do!

Since starting my journey into fermenting foods I've relaxed the concept of "gone off" considerably!

[Deleted User]

I think the real debate for me isn't if it's safe to use the foods or not but if the dates given have any relevance (other than use by dates on meat) or are in any way helpful. I can certainly tell if a banana is ripe I don't need a label telling me not to eat it until a certain date just as I can tell if a pineapple is ripe by the colour and the smell. What I'm really asking is if there IS any virtue at all in suppliers telling us when to use fresh produce (fruit and veg) when it's perfectly safe to use it in most cases long after the given best before date.

Ilona

I think too many dates, use by, best before, etc, is the cause of a lot of food wastage. It is too confusing, people panic and chuck things away before taking a proper look at it. It would be better if there was one date, SELL BY, then the shop would know it has to be sold by that date. What happens to it after that is the responsibility of the person who bought it. People want wet nursing, instructions on how to do this and that, when it is only common sense whether to eat it or not. Bring back cookery/domestic science in schools.

They could add another date which might be helpful, the date it was made at the factory, slaughtered at the butchers, or picked from the fields. But that would have to be a world wide initiative as a lot of our food is shipped in from other parts of the world.

Ilona

peachyprice

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

What I'm really asking is if there IS any virtue at all in suppliers telling us when to use fresh produce (fruit and veg) when it's perfectly safe to use it in most cases long after the given best before date.

They're just hoping you'll throw away your 'out of date' produce and go buy more.

And, TBH, there is a whole generation now becoming young adults shopping for themselves who actually believe you need dates of fruit and veg and will do exactly what the supermarkets want.

The only food we NEED to be dated is that which becomes dangerous to eat after a point in time.

GreyQueen

My indy greengrocer's mrs tells a mind-boggling tale of how a customer told her that she'd binned a (supermarket-bought) pineapple because it was past its best-before date.

The greengrocer asked if it'd gone off? No, it hadn't even ripened, was still green. So why had the woman binned it? Because it was past its best-before date, of course, was the response, as if explaining the bleedin' obvious to an imbecile......... words fail me.

Mind you, I make out like a bandit at YS time just because of these dates and often enjoy 90% reductions so perhaps I have a vested interest in keeping the status quo and profiting from other people's silliness/ the supermarkets' fear of litigation.

Circa 4 pm, I shall be putting my coat on and heading up to a tosspots metro to take advantage of this foolishness once again.

Farway

GreyQueen wrote: »

My indy greengrocer's mrs tells a mind-boggling tale of how a customer told her that she'd binned a (supermarket-bought) pineapple because it was past its best-before date.
.

People do bin stuff needlessly, as I was talking to a bloke in pub, he had phone call from his Mrs, get more spuds on way home, ours are out of date:eek:
We all, including barmaid, said rubbish but he could not convince her

GreyQueen

Farway wrote: »

People do bin stuff needlessly, as I was talking to a bloke in pub, he had phone call from his Mrs, get more spuds on way home, ours are out of date:eek:
We all, including barmaid, said rubbish but he could not convince her

At an indivdual household's level, this is a sorry waste of time and money but at a wider level, the binning of good food is an abomination.

I wonder if it is because so many of us are far removed from living on the land and growing our own foods? Obvs, that isn't going to help with pineapple-anxiety but anyone who grows their own veg knows that the spuds in the shops now were all harvested several months ago and have been in storage ever since.

I have a 10 kg sack of spuds leaning against the sofa atm, home grown ones from the lottie. I harvested them in August.

Every Christmas, my indy greengrocer reports overhearing customers say things to each other like We won't buy the veg until Saturday so it'll be fresh.

Yup, folks are imagining that their carrots, spuds, parnips etc are being spirited from the fields and delivered to the shops on a daily basis instead of being harvested weeks (if not months) before and sitting in cold storage until needed. So, with Christmas falling on a Monday, don't beat yourselves up shopping for your veggies on the Saturday so they'll be fresher than if bought mid-week prior.

If you've got room to keep them in the fridge or a cold area, save some aggro and shop earlier.

Pollycat

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

What I'm really asking is if there IS any virtue at all in suppliers telling us when to use fresh produce (fruit and veg) when it's perfectly safe to use it in most cases long after the given best before date.

There will be people who stick rigidly to dates and there will be people who take no notice of dates.
Some people need to be told when to eat food, other people don't.