MSE News: Tesco removes best-before dates to cut food waste

Former_MSE_Megan_F

Tesco is removing best-before labels from almost 70 items in its fruit and veg range in a bid to help reduce food waste
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''Tesco removes best-before dates to cut food waste''

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badmemory

This is more about saving money because of their bad stock rotation than it is about food waste. If they insist on throwing on the shelves the same thing with 3 different dates then any sensible person is going to pick the one with the longest date. I certainly wouldn't throw stuff away just because it was past its best before date but I certainly wouldn't buy it on its best before date either!

alinwales

i agree. I don't use the best before date to determine when to throw food out, but I do use it to ensure I'm getting the best life at the time of purchase.

Tesco know this, and I totally agree that it's a ploy to ensure Tesco don't have to remove food from their shelves.

Norman_Castle

Tesco may have calculated that this will also benefit them but if it means supermarkets avoiding binning edible food that has been bypassed by customers then it will cut food waste. Its likely there will be a coded date on the bag and a limit to how long items will be displayed.

I think its a good thing. I've been at a friends house when she insisted on binning potatoes and carrots because of the date on the bag despite them being perfectly edible.

badmemory

Norman_Castle wrote: »

Tesco may have calculated that this will also benefit them but if it means supermarkets avoiding binning edible food that has been bypassed by customers then it will cut food waste. Its likely there will be a coded date on the bag and a limit to how long items will be displayed.

I think its a good thing. I've been at a friends house when she insisted on binning potatoes and carrots because of the date on the bag despite them being perfectly edible.

So she's not just wasting perfectly good food but she is also wasting money. I've used potatoes over a month over (don't eat many). It is just a case of using common sense. Of course, if your nose is not working so well then that could make sense.


The big problem will be when we learn that we cannot even pretend to trust them to remove their stock by even days after their coded date has passed. We won't be able to prove that it is the stuff we bought this morning not the ones we bought last week that is already past eating.



A removal from sale date would be much more sensible (like many monthly magazines do). At least it might give us some idea how long it had been on the shelf with random people handling it & squeezing it.


I've already cut down a lot on what I buy from Tescos as they are quite expensive, but this is just going to push me elsewhere. After all, am I going to pay 75p to not have a clue how old something is or 50p for the same? Especially when the second one seems to have that stock moving out more quickly.


This change sounds good - if you don't already shop there, then you know their problem is a stock rotation one causing the dumping of too much food

Norman_Castle

badmemory wrote: »

The big problem will be when we learn that we cannot even pretend to trust them to remove their stock by even days after their coded date has passed.

A removal from sale date would be much more sensible

Coded date would be used by store staff to know when to remove products. Its poor for repeat business to sell substandard food so not in their interest to ignore it.


Removal from sale date would be viewed as a best before date by many.

HornetSaver

I generally split my shopping by doing little and often - on my commute I can get to any of the main supermarkets without significant diversion, therefore I can go to say, Tesco one day, Aldi the next and Asda the next, each time to get three or four things on my list. This decision will simply reduce my spending in Tesco because I'll no longer be willing to buy fruit and veg from there.

I'm not criticising them, nor do I think they'll be shaking in their boots, but their competitors will keep giving me information on how fresh the product is. This will help me pick the product which will last at home for the longest, which reduces the chances that I will waste some of the food.

Contrary to what others say I don't think product rotation is the answer. Most people, if they think the date on the product they see is too short, will dig a little and try to find a longer date.

Price is the answer to the food waste problem. Some people are willing to pay more for fresher food, some people willing to take older food for less money. Use technology to charge more for food with a longer shelf life, to charge a standard price for food within what is considered the "fair" range, and a progressively lesser price for food approaching (and lower still if past) the "best before" date.

Doc_N

Having switched from Lidl to Aldi because Aldi started (not long ago) putting dates on their fresh produce, and Lidl won't, this means I'm even less likely to buy fresh produce at Tesco.

This is plain deceit by Tesco because they don't like customers taking the fresher stuff instead of the staler stuff - concealing dates and replacing them with codes (claiming that it's really for the customers) is a typically sneaky Tesco trick and I hope it backfires on them.

mjm3346

They just hope to sell food that is not at its best for full price - as to stock rotation I have seen food a week past the sell-by date still on their shelves along with a variation of over week on the sell-by dates on other items

Pollycat

badmemory wrote: »

So she's not just wasting perfectly good food but she is also wasting money. I've used potatoes over a month over (don't eat many). It is just a case of using common sense. Of course, if your nose is not working so well then that could make sense.

I've got no idea what the date was on the potatoes I've bought (once I've got them home).
I take them out of the plastic bag (makes them sweaty) and keep them in a cardboard box.

I've never thrown potatoes away.
When they get a few sprouts on them, I make them into mash and freeze them.

dutchcloggie

I support Tesco in this as any food waste is bad. It is a shame that there won't be much in the way of cheap veg at the end of the day for me to pick up. On the other hand, people behave like absolute animals around the Reduced to Clear isle so perhaps they have themselves to blame. The ugly scenes at 19:00 are no longer rare but a daily thing. And that looks awful for Tesco. This hopefully stops food waste and ugly first fights over a head of lettuce.