'Chosen on' fresh produce date

pineapple

I received some celeriac in a supermarket delivery. No 'best before' or 'use by' date but a 'chosen on' date (which was the day of delivery). I'm not sure what that even means in this context. Do they mean when it was picked off the shelves? I still don't have a use by date. Am I missing something really obvious?

Cheers.

Mnoee

Lots of veg doesn't have a best before date anymore - you basically have to have a look, see if it looks mouldy, squidgy, or brown and if it's not, it's fine. I tend to buy loose products for home delivery and there's never date on them. 

Rosa_Damascena

@pineapple has a point. How can you meal plan unless you know what is likely to be on the turn first?

Mnoee

There's a lot of rules to storing vegetables correctly to get the longest shelf life. Far too much to print on a packet. Very easy to find with Google, along with approximate shelf life in optimal conditions.

If they put a shelf life of months on potatoes, and people store them with onions (for example), they'll have complaints when they don't last a week. If they put a best before of four days, people will throw perfectly good potatoes away. If they don't put a date on at all, people will also complain. The supermarkets just can't win. 

tastyhog

Rosa_Damascena said:

@pineapple has a point. How can you meal plan unless you know what is likely to be on the turn first?

By using your eyes, I'm sure most people don't buy fruit / veg for using months down the line, most buy for the coming days or week, and very few fruit / veg are time sensitive to that degree, the only real exception being soft fruits and things like mushrooms

A head of celery will keep months in the crisper, just like a lot of other fruit / veg will, even that head of iceberg and pack of tomatoes will be good for a couple of months in the fridge

sarah1972

Most of my fruit & veg hasn’t had a use by date in months quite rightly. It’s no different than going into a greengrocers, people refrigerate/store correctly and look to see if it’s still usable. 

MrsStepford

I haven't seen this before. A 'picked on' date would be helpful, but I don't see this happening as so much veg is put on in cold store. Apples can be a year old, when you buy them. 

Robust veg like celeriac will last ages outside the fridge. I've got marrows, squashes, swede, turnips and celeriac bought weeks ago.