Best Before Dates

unforeseen

Raveloe said:

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.

And this is the reason why a lot of shops are now removing BBD from products. Too much wastage from people like the OP

jon81uk

Raveloe said:

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.

Often though the best before does reflect the quality of the product.
I ate a packet of Walkers crisps a couple of weeks past the best before and they were awful, soft and not crisp so I used my common sense, stopped eating them and throw them away. But if I'd bought that pack from a store and ate them same day as purchase I would not have been happy, would have gone back for a refund as crisps by definition should be crisp. Thats why best before dates exist, people want to eat a product in the correct condition and selling them something that doesn't meet expectations is bad business.
The items many supermarkets have removed best before from are fresh fruit and vegetables where you can see the quality of the item straight away. Whereas things like Walkers crisps are impossible to know the status of until the packet is open and the product tested.

MoneySavingTracy

Have noticed this too sometimes, it's them that will end up in trouble if it gets found out I suppose so I wouldn't lose sleep over it tbh.