Best Before Dates

scotterillo

In my local shop I picked up a Nutrigrain bar and noticed the BBD was nearly 2 months ago. I told the shop keeper and we noticed that the whole box was dated the same so he removed the box from the shelf. That was last week. This morning I’ve noticed the exact same box has been put back on the shelf for sale! What should my next move be? 

JGB1955

Ignore it. It's not a problem BBDs are merely advisory. It's 'Eat by' that are more of an issue.

PLRFD

It is a problem the shop keeper is being dishonest.

p00hsticks

PLRFD said:

It is a problem the shop keeper is being dishonest.

How are they being dishonest ? They removed the box from the shelf temporarily, presumably either because they weren't sure whether they were allowed to continue selling them themselves or in an effort not to hurt the OP's feelings by explaining to them that as it was a BBE date and not a 'Use By' date they were perfectly within their rights to keep them on display.

Then later, when they checked and realised that they were OK to continue to keep selling them, they put them back on the shelves.

PLRFD

It all depends wether the shopkeeper has put a sign on saying 2 months out of date as I read the original post I don’t think this is the case.

sarah1972

scotterillo said:

In my local shop I picked up a Nutrigrain bar and noticed the BBD was nearly 2 months ago. I told the shop keeper and we noticed that the whole box was dated the same so he removed the box from the shelf. That was last week. This morning I’ve noticed the exact same box has been put back on the shelf for sale! What should my next move be? 

Not sure what you mean by ‘what should your next move be?’ 

A. Buy them 
b. Don’t buy them. 

Thankfully lots of things are having best before dates scrapped, quite right in my opinion as some people seem to be confused between best before and use by. 

jon81uk

If you feel strongly write a letter of complaint to the owner of the shop.
and/or stop shopping there.

But its not a public health concern.

Brie

I've had the same issue with a branch of Sainsburys. They had gum (so even less of an issue than with your item) that was up to 2 years past its BBD.  

Now I don't know if you have ever had the misfortune of eating very dated gum.  It's fairly solid and while it won't kill you, won't make you sick it's not really delightful.  

What made it worse in my mind was that having gone through the entire box of gum looking for something within its BBD it was obvious that this was the dumping box for a this item.  Some BBD 2 months back, some 6 and some much much longer.  Obviously no one had been circulating the stock effectively.  

I pointed this out to the staff and they first said "ok" and then went to put them back on display.  I explained again and the (very young) chap took the box off to ask someone.  Next week it was back.  And all the time at full price and with nothing to show "discounted due to BBD" or similar.  Quite frankly while it may be perfectly legal it's shoddy customer service.  Unfortunately a complaint to their head office didn't improve the situation.  They obviously don't care.

pumpkin89

I've had the same issue with various products at Sainsbury's.  Their official policy is not to sell any product past its BBD, but I suspect the individual stores are penalised for not finding the items and reducing them to clear while still within date - so the incentive will be to sell them to unsuspecting customers.

They weren't very fussed about me finding a yogurt 3 days past its use by date, either, and that is a much bigger issue (if I were trading standards, they could have been fined £25,000 for that).

Farway

Brie said:

I've had the same issue with a branch of Sainsburys. They had gum (so even less of an issue than with your item) that was up to 2 years past its BBD.  

Now I don't know if you have ever had the misfortune of eating very dated gum.  It's fairly solid and while it won't kill you, won't make you sick it's not really delightful.  

What made it worse in my mind was that having gone through the entire box of gum looking for something within its BBD it was obvious that this was the dumping box for a this item.  Some BBD 2 months back, some 6 and some much much longer.  Obviously no one had been circulating the stock effectively.  

I pointed this out to the staff and they first said "ok" and then went to put them back on display.  I explained again and the (very young) chap took the box off to ask someone.  Next week it was back.  And all the time at full price and with nothing to show "discounted due to BBD" or similar.  Quite frankly while it may be perfectly legal it's shoddy customer service.  Unfortunately a complaint to their head office didn't improve the situation.  They obviously don't care.

Perhaps if it goes on & on & you CBA then let the supplier / maker of the item know? They may well take umbrage at rank tasting stock being sold

Raveloe

In origin I suspect BBDs are a plan to increase sales. We inadvertantly once left a bowl of fresh fruit in a room which we did not re-enter for a year.  When we went back in we were met with a bowl of perfectly preserved dried fruit which we later consumed with great pleasure. Common sense beats a BBD every time.