"No date, helps reduce waste" For whose benefit is this?

Salamat

    
Is it for the store's benefit, or the shoppers? If it is for the shopper, how?  (I bought oranges that had gone bad within 4 days!)

Katiehound

unfortunately some silly people throw things away on the date, even the day before the date! because they are obsessed by best before dates.

As far as I am concerned it is not in the interests of the shopper- I want to buy fresh products with the longest bb dates because there is a fair chance that they will last- or I will be taking them back to the shop.

It is 'said' to be in the interests of reducing waste- I think it is in the store's interest because now they can fob us off with  stock that is not the freshest!

Salamat

Katiehound said:

It is 'said' to be in the interests of reducing waste- I think it is in the store's interest because now they can fob us off with  stock that is not the freshest!

Absolutely! 

Mnoee

I've been told that Sainsburys use a code that's just counting the days of the year - so today is 362, and that 351 on the packet means best before 18/12. Asda apparently uses a letter A-L for the month and the day - so today is L29, January 1st is A1. 

How accurate this is, I'm not sure - I don't even shop in those supermarkets. I've just read it elsewhere online.

Edit: having spotted an L28 on my Tesco oranges, I'm guessing they use the same system as Asda. Still fine to eat, but if it helps you pick longer date stuff then it's good to know! 

sarah1972

I think it’s a great idea, you don’t see best before dates in the greengrocers or farmers markets (remember the days when we actually used greengrocers and butchers and bought fresh food)

It will stop the foolish throwing food away because the clock has struck midnight on the best before date.

It’s been quite rightly going on for quite a while in supermarkets, and long May it continue. 

sarah1972

Katiehound said:

As far as I am concerned it is not in the interests of the shopper- I want to buy fresh products with the longest bb dates because there is a fair chance that they will last- or I will be taking them back to the shop.

Never had a bb in a greengrocers or farmers market to be honest.

Sadly fresh products with the longest bb date do not go together at all. You either want fresh or the longest date. 

When I pull a carrot out the ground, it goes soft Very quickly but if I buy “fresh” bag of carrots in the supermarket they are still hard after a month in the fridge …… we all know that supermarket veg & fruit has either been sprayed with something or kept in long term cold storage so is rarely fresh at all. 

dealyboy

Hi Sarah ...

sarah1972 said:

I think it’s a great idea, you don’t see best before dates in the greengrocers or farmers markets (remember the days when we actually used greengrocers and butchers and bought fresh food)

It will stop the foolish throwing food away because the clock has struck midnight on the best before date.

It’s been quite rightly going on for quite a while in supermarkets, and long May it continue. 

I think it's a great idea for the supermarkets who get more money for older stock. Reduced items always sell if they are good enough to eat.

It will stop the foolish throwing food away because the clock has struck midnight on the best before date. Who does that?

I think 'use by', 'best before' and 'display until' are confusing for some, but it is a matter of educating the consumer. 'Use by' I presume will be retained for health and safety reasons.

sarah1972 said:

When I pull a carrot out the ground, it goes soft Very quickly but if I buy “fresh” bag of carrots in the supermarket they are still hard after a month in the fridge …… we all know that supermarket veg & fruit has either been sprayed with something or kept in long term cold storage so is rarely fresh at all. 

When I buy a bag of carrots, leeks, or tomatoes I have to be very careful (or lucky). Carrots now suffer from squashy ends, leeks get pink patches and tomatoes get black mould.

This is an encouragement for customers to get to the totes underneath, not a good thing from a health and safety point of view. I have seen a lot of stock taken from those in recent months.

Some customers want to know the freshest produce, to get the best value and longest life, especially poorer, single and older people (like me).
 

sarah1972

dealyboy said:

When I buy a bag of carrots, leeks, or tomatoes I have to be very careful (or lucky). Carrots now suffer from squashy ends, leeks get pink patches and tomatoes get black mould.

This is an encouragement for customers to get to the totes underneath, not a good thing from a health and safety point of view. I have seen a lot of stock taken from those in recent months.

Some customers want to know the freshest produce, to get the best value and longest life, especially poorer, single and older people (like me).
 

Never had carrots with squashy ends, just checked last weeks ones in my salad drawer and they are as crunchy as when I bought them worryingly, never seen a ‘pink’ patch on leeks and tomatoes I buy once a week and never store them in the fridge obviously but they’ve never gone mouldy before I use them. 

Maybe you’re unlucky? 

I totally appreciate some customers want to know the freshest produce but thankfully now there will be no scrabbling to the back and leaving the shortest dated at the front. 

If people really want the freshest and best value then a greengrocer or market is the way to go or as my Nan does, buy frozen, other than salad items. 

Personally I love the idea as we never had best before dates on veg when I was growing up so not sure why people obsess about it nowadays. 

Salamat

Mnoee said:

I've been told that Sainsburys use a code that's just counting the days of the year - so today is 362, and that 351 on the packet means best before 18/12. Asda apparently uses a letter A-L for the month and the day - so today is L29, January 1st is A1. 

How accurate this is, I'm not sure - I don't even shop in those supermarkets. I've just read it elsewhere online.

Edit: having spotted an L28 on my Tesco oranges, I'm guessing they use the same system as Asda. Still fine to eat, but if it helps you pick longer date stuff then it's good to know! 

That's very interesting! Unfortunately my usual 'in-store' contact wasn't there today to ask.  Did my Sainsburys weekly shop today and see some tomatoes have the 'L25' type label, so I assume they're using both systems. I guess it must be a date packed code?

Brambleberry

Aldi used to do something similar in the early 2000's and not put actual dates on some fresh produce. You had to read the numbers on labels as week and day number, the trick was to buy the highest value as they had the longest shelf life remaining, not sure when they switched to actual dates though.

Mnoee

Salamat said:

Mnoee said:

I've been told that Sainsburys use a code that's just counting the days of the year - so today is 362, and that 351 on the packet means best before 18/12. Asda apparently uses a letter A-L for the month and the day - so today is L29, January 1st is A1. 

How accurate this is, I'm not sure - I don't even shop in those supermarkets. I've just read it elsewhere online.

Edit: having spotted an L28 on my Tesco oranges, I'm guessing they use the same system as Asda. Still fine to eat, but if it helps you pick longer date stuff then it's good to know! 

That's very interesting! Unfortunately my usual 'in-store' contact wasn't there today to ask.  Did my Sainsburys weekly shop today and see some tomatoes have the 'L25' type label, so I assume they're using both systems. I guess it must be a date packed code?

Aye, it might be the date packed - like I said, no insider knowledge here, it's just come up on other parts of the Internet. Hopefully Chtouka-Moha doesn't celebrate Christmas or was adequately compensated for working it!