Good and Bad Buys at Lidl and Aldi stores (***Please don't expire***)

Rosa_Damascena

Milk on the turn can be used to make yoghurt or paneer, depending on how far gone it is.

harz99

Sea_Shell said:

Milk

I've just noticed that Aldi have now moved from a Use By date (last carton dated to 22/10) to Best Before (new carton dated to 27/10).   Bought a week apart.  Semi-Skimmed.

So nothing really changes, and few have probably even noticed (I new it was due to be changing, just not when), but I'm sure some people will now have "Milk Anxiety".  

Whether it will actually reduce the amount of milk thrown away...who knows.    We always get through it before it starts to taste un-fresh.

I suspect it'll make little difference as people who check dates will still go for the longest future date anyway, the issues for me are when any product has dates removed in favour of a store code, that is just shifting the companies wastage onto the customer, as many will not understand the codes and packaging often makes it nigh on impossible to check the contents properly.

Brie

Disappointed that Lidl had absolutely no tomatoes at all!!  Never seen that happen before.  Even at the worst times there's generally some of those pale tasteless ones but even those were missing.

On the plus side I picked up some Norwegian potato salad which apparently has herring and apple in it!!  There was some interesting looking German meatloaf as well that the OH will no doubt hoover up.

mikb

harz99 said:

Sea_Shell said:

Milk

I've just noticed that Aldi have now moved from a Use By date (last carton dated to 22/10) to Best Before (new carton dated to 27/10).   Bought a week apart.  Semi-Skimmed.

So nothing really changes, and few have probably even noticed (I new it was due to be changing, just not when), but I'm sure some people will now have "Milk Anxiety".  

Whether it will actually reduce the amount of milk thrown away...who knows.    We always get through it before it starts to taste un-fresh.

I suspect it'll make little difference as people who check dates will still go for the longest future date anyway, the issues for me are when any product has dates removed in favour of a store code, that is just shifting the companies wastage onto the customer, as many will not understand the codes and packaging often makes it nigh on impossible to check the contents properly.

The shift to secret-coding of the display until/use by/best before dates is precisely so that customers do not understand the codes. Therefore, customers will no longer use them to make bad decisions ... this is to "stop wastage" from people seeing "Best Before: 18th Oct" and binning it tomorrow because it is out of date, and therefore instantly inedible, toxic and rancid!

I'm not entirely convinced it's a good thing, however I've heard enough comments from people in store to realise that not everyone has common sense about these things. e.g. complaining about bananas that have brown spots on them as being no good, or complaining about poor stock rotation and then saying "which is why I always have to take the good ones from the back". Hello? You reaching to the back and taking those is what causes the poor stock rotation! Naughty!

General_Grant

I've been buying the own brand instant coffee from Lidl (the 200g for £1.99 variety) for a while.   It's good enough.

Picking up a jar today I noticed there was quite a gap between the top of the coffee and the top of the jar.
Have they increased the size of the glass jar - or have I simply not noticed the unnecessary air before?
Surely they can't have reduced the weight without changing the declared weight on the label?

YoungBlueEyes

General_Grant said:

I've been buying the own brand instant coffee from Lidl (the 200g for £1.99 variety) for a while.   It's good enough.

Picking up a jar today I noticed there was quite a gap between the top of the coffee and the top of the jar.
Have they increased the size of the glass jar - or have I simply not noticed the unnecessary air before?
Surely they can't have reduced the weight without changing the declared weight on the label?

I'd guess you just got a funny jar. It's one thing shrinking the jar, but deliberately underfilling a jar and not putting the right weight on the label would have the Weights + Measures people on them. 

If you haven't opened it I'd take it back.

dealyboy

@General_Grant said:

I've been buying the own brand instant coffee from Lidl (the 200g for £1.99 variety) for a while.   It's good enough.

Picking up a jar today I noticed there was quite a gap between the top of the coffee and the top of the jar.
Have they increased the size of the glass jar - or have I simply not noticed the unnecessary air before?
Surely they can't have reduced the weight without changing the declared weight on the label?

I always check two or three coffee jars, from the front and back, for content level. Of course the levels can vary due to settlement or size of granules, but should be consistent for all jars on the shelf.

On a wider point, it's always worth checking content level or weight/volume when a curved 'E' is by the figure. This applies to 'produce' and 'fresh' and surprisingly whisky. I regularly gain about 30% or more on veg, but some items are less than the nominal figure.

Rosa_Damascena

General_Grant said:

I've been buying the own brand instant coffee from Lidl (the 200g for £1.99 variety) for a while.   It's good enough.

Picking up a jar today I noticed there was quite a gap between the top of the coffee and the top of the jar.
Have they increased the size of the glass jar - or have I simply not noticed the unnecessary air before?
Surely they can't have reduced the weight without changing the declared weight on the label?

I have been buying this for the past couple of days but having been reliant on coffee shops for the last few days am reluctant to go back to it. It tastes bitter in comparison.

Pollycat

I buy Aldi Columbian and Alto Rica.
Like Kenco.

rhcp

I have an unopened jar of the Lidl coffee and have weighed it and it is 200g, the coffee filling up to just above the label.  I thought it was always like that with a gap at the top.