Topic: sell by dates

[ACE]

I have never dug anything out of the garden with a sell by date. I use my sight and nose to determine if it is still edible. The same with stuff from the shops that lies in the back of the larder, if the tin is blown it goes in the bin, otherwise a spoonful for the dog and then I'll eat it for dinner. Joke, joke ;D

We all grew up in the 40's and 50's without the granny state looking after us without a fridge or freezer and none of the waste that goes on nowadays.

I was surprised about the statement that some smoked goods can be dangerous to eat when they get older. I was under the impression that smoking preserved things, I remember a bacon joint hung in the chimney for the winter to be eaten the next summer I'm still here and apart from being accused of having a warped sense of humour, I've got years to go yet.

[chriscross1966]

I always find it wierd that so many people throw so much food away.... One reason I can cheerfully get away with occasionally missing our fortnightly bin collections (I don't produce much non-recyclable waste anyway) is that there's no food waste in there to go off and start stinking..... Admittedly currently I have to put all my onion peel in the bin though due to white rot.....

[Digeroo]

I think in some cases you are right.  But I do remember hearing about an old couple who died because of a pin prick size hole in a tin of salmon.

I presume that there has been a drop is cases of food poisoning.  I can remember having many more sick/diahorrea type bugs as a child.  

We have food waste bins so it is very easy to see how much is being wasted.  I compost most so there is normally very little only a few bones, some diseased veg and eggs shells mostly to be thrown out.

Unfortuately we do not have a separate plastic collection.   

I do not understand the amount of waste, most supermarkets steadily reduce the price until it has gone.  Though I do know M&S do not but allow some charities to collect it.

[antipodes]

@digeroo
I compost my egg shells. They reduce to a very fine shell and just crush to bits in the ground.

I am staggered by the waste of food, especially among young people. I admit that I am very lax with use by dates (and sell by dates I just ignore, they are only there for stock rotation) and cheerfully eat yoghurts that are a month out of date. I have never been ill yet. Anything that is fermented I will eat. Obviously  meats/fish I would not do that with, but like Ace I use my nose, you can tell if something is off pretty quickly.  I know many people that, once the date on a yoghurt is reached, will throw them out, even if there are several left.

I blame too much packaging, you are forced to buy quantities that you don't want and then throw away the rest. I rarely buy fruit or veg at the supermarket but if I do, I never buy packaged things, always just from the loose produce. When people shop in small businesses and actually buy from their butcher, greengrocer etc, they may pay a little more per weight but you buy less and you throw nothing away.

[brownowl23]

Sell by dates create so much waste. as people wont eat it if its a day past it. its ridiculous. I go by nose, apart from milk when it has to be DH's nose as I can stand the stuff and it turns my stomach to smell it.

I hate all the packaging that comes with supermarket stuff. drives me nuts.

we have full recyling ,so much of ours is recycled.

[Deb P]

Hell yes, sniff something, if no stench I deem it is fit to eat, or at least give to OH who will eat anything. If repulsive, the cats get first dibs, only then the bin.

I feel it is the 'use by' dates rather than sell by dates that are the problem. Use by dates are a well thought up ruse to make us buy more food, just another example of reducing our responsibility to make a decision as to whether something is fit to eat or not. Common sense has mostly gone out of the window, everything seems to be always someone else's fault or responsibility, with people sometimes suing to get what they feel is owed to them. Of course, this all hinges on the food being safe to eat in the first place and being stored appropriately after purchase.

 I have returned meat to my main supermarket before the sell by date on several occasions as when opened it was clearly 'off', so having a sell or use by date does not in itself guarantee either fitness to eat or quality. Moan over now! ;D

[grannyjanny]

I have a neighbor who regularly throws whole chickens out if they are a few days off the date, other meats too. I think there must be something wrong with her nose but she's not the sort of person you could suggest that to ;D. Another friend like me uses her nose but when her son was at home he was not happy about it.

[BarriedaleNick]

I used to know some hippies and punks in Hackney back before it was full of City types and they used to go Supermarket bin raiding as what was then Safeways in Stamford Hill.  It wasn't my thing but I did go with them once and I was staggered by what was in the bins.  Bread and cakes galore - more than could be carried by half a dozen people.  They never touched the meat but the fruit and veg was binned by the skip load - All of it perfectly edible..all of it got distributed locally.
Then they just locked the bins away behind barbed wire and it stopped
I would like to think that Supermarkets are more enlightened these days and have food recycling policies but I wouldn't put money on it...

[brownowl23]

When I worked in a large supermarket chain that has stores at petrol stations, we had to mark down during the day, but if it wasnt gone by the end of the shift it got chucked out. it wasnt even allowed to be given to staff for free.
I saw sacks fo food go out to the bins. and this was only in 2008.

[Poppy Mole]

I can remember having a row with the Environmental Health chappie when I had the pub because some of my bottled conditioned real ales were past their best before date by a couple of days, I'm afraid he had to be educated by one of my highly educated scientific customers. Funny how he never came back for the follow up check!

[saddad]

I have some bottle conditioned beers going back to the 1990's .... I'm waiting for my Mortgage to finish before I open them....

I on the other hand am Well past my "Sell By" Date...  :-X

[antipodes]

waste... and food is just the tip of the iceberg. big companies that make sports wear etc, if they write off certain ends of seasons etc, will just bin their goods: shoes, bags etc, often they are slashed or damaged in some way to prevent people taking them as freebies. It's quite disgusting and obviously the way our capitalist society keeps itself ticking over. But we will all pay for it in the end I am certain.

My local supermarket often marks down goods that need to be sold quickly, usually 30 or 50% off! I snap them up if it's something I eat, as with four of us, dairy foods etc get eaten very quickly. If it's meat and the consume-by date is very close, I inspect, if it looks ok, when I get home, I have a closer inspection then if it's not cooked imemdiately it goes in the freezer and it will get cooked some other day. It certainly helps out with the food bills! And yet many people turn their noses up at this. We have become a very fussy lot it seems! and the UK is even worse than in France where people still buy a certain amount of fresh, unpackaged food...

[Grandma]

Spooky that this should come up today!

Rummaging around in my larder this morning I found this part-pack of cherry toms that had fallen down behind some tins.

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They look fine........

And here's the label with the 'display until' date.

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They're about 2 months old! Doesn't say much for my housekeeping tho, does it?

[pumkinlover]

They're about 2 months old! Doesn't say much for my housekeeping tho, does it?

It also says a lot about how late the season was this year ;)

I can tell a worse story about what I found behind the kitchen door curtain when we had a dog! :-[

[Alex133]

I'm with the sniff and sight check brigade. Also, with jars of stuff I tend to have a tiny bit first on the basis I'll keel over while cooking if it's really gone off. Afraid yesterday I scraped bit of mould of my jam before eating - wicked! - but I only made it a couple of months ago and refuse to throw away.
I do pay attention to use by dates but common sense says that there is bound to be a good margin before it really becomes dangerous.
I loathe waste and think it's disgusting that so much is thrown away.