Best Before Dates

[reds]

Before I begin my question, just clarity about my background to this as we will differ in that respect!

I have a huge dislike (a bit understated) of 'stale' food and I can spot the taste of food and drink past it's Best Before Date within the first bite or swig. This I attribute to a childhood where my mother packed me off for the day with sandwiches so stale they were green. Many a mouth was taken by a hungry self, only to spit it out and realise why upon closer inspection. I can spot an item close to it's BB date too, it's my sixth sense

 

Now I also hate waste and always have done and was brought up (sometimes forcefully, sometimes by Little Chef Lollies)to always finish the food on my plate. I also have very little money and right now quite frankly am on the best diet ever - no money and little food I can eat even if I did have the money!

 

I am currently eating to stop feeling hungry as that is all I can afford. Not a woe story and I'm not moaning just background to my question. Which is:

 

Is it really waste to throw away food that is past it's best before date? (excluding use by dates here deliberately).

I say 'No' because:

1) The food will have diminished nutritional value so will not be giving the maximum benefit it could when it was fresh, hence you're not actually losing all that much by not eating it.

2)Why eat something just for the sake of 'using it up'? If you don't need the calories or nutrition then it's only going to be wasted anyway - only via the sewage system instead of the bin collections.

3) Surely the answer is to buy less and and to only purchase what you realistically need, rather than to eat stale food and still buy more anyway?

 

Or am I missing something??? Trust me I fully understand that when faced with nothing or stale food, then stale food wins every time. BUT when we talk about waste in this country, that's not really the case.

 

PS. This 'monologue' came about from shops no longer removing BB expired food like they used to, due to the govn. report recently (and my annoyance at having to take it back to ask for a refund - if I'm going to spend money on food then I'm not spending it on food that tastes bad and has less nutrition than a same priced item!)

[Jazz]

nearly everything is frozen here so I dont have to worry about dates

[Carole Stitcher]

Complicated question and to answer it fully would be even more complicated.

 

Your point at 3) is absolutely correct, there can be no better solution to the problem and food waste is getting to be a major problem mainly, in my opinion, due to social development issues. When I was young and my mother was teaching me the skills I would need as an adult, she taught me to feel and smell food to check whether it was ok to eat. She taught me how long different things were likely to keep fresh and what was the best way to keep them in order for them to stay edible for the optimum amount of time. She also taught me how to shop on a budget and to buy what was needed.

 

Nowadays many mothers don't have this basic knowledge, because their mothers either worked and didn't have the time, didn't have the inclination, or felt that their children should be having fun rather than learning boring stuff.

 

Add that to the fact that successive governments both here and in Europe have increasingly treated the population as if they are too stupid to make a decision about whether or not a tomato is fit to eat so have legislated that all foods should be marked with a BB or sell by date. Consequently, people have degenerated to that level of stupidity because they don't have the knowledge or the determination to question arbitrary decisions.

 

 

Your point at 1) is not necessarily correct. Different foods degenerate in nutritional value at different rates and, in all fairness, any nutrtion is good as long as its not going to make you ill.

 

Plus, where you buy your food from can make a huge difference to whether something will last beyond its sell by. For example, when I worked for a chicken processor, for Tesco/Sainsburys products, meat had to be used within 2 days of the kill date, Asda/Iceland within 3 days, other minor supermarkets 4-5 days, own brand 5 days. Not hard to work out that Tesco or Sainsbury products were likely to last well beyond the sell by date.

 

I would also disagree with your point at 2). You may not need the calories or nutrition today but if it can be eaten safely tomorrow, why waste money buying something else when you can eat what's left over?

 

The reasoning behind not removing BB food is a little more complex (but I agree with your reasons for being cross).

Sell by has always been mandatory, BB advisory and with the onus becoming more on preventing waste (and the need to minimise losses and maximise profits in a credit crunch) the shops you are concerned about have obviously chosen to interpret the expression differently to the way they did previously.

[ailsas mum]

I don't have a problem with out of date food, I feed it all to Vince , he doesn't have the squits to often so most of it must be okay.

 

Terri

[merledogs]

I use sell by dates as a guide and not as gospel. I use my own sense of smell and touch as a better indicator.

 

I do consume out of data food and yes, it would be waste to throw it away because I would go out and buy more (so would also be a waste of my money).

 

For example, I used to always used to pour the 'old' milk down the sink when I bought a new bottle on my weekly shop. Now I use the milk until it's finished and that can sometimes be two weeks after I bought it. It doesn't go off in that time if it's kept in the fridge.

 

I've got a box of cornflour in the cupboard which is two years out of date and I still use it.

 

One thing I wouldn't eat out of date would be meat or fish. Even the most fresh stuff in supermarkets is sometimes not good enough and I can smell 'off' meat a mile off (as well as seeing the change in colour on the meat). For example I wanted to buy a cooked chicken on Thursday but when I got to the till and took it out of the trolley, I could smell it wasn't 'right' so I didn't buy it.

 

What I do do when I go shopping is always pick the meat, etc from the back/bottom of the shelf and buy the stuff with the latest available sell by date - that way I am getting the freshest that they have. As a rule whatever is on the back of the shelf has been there a shorter time, so I can often be seen rooting around on the shelves in Asda

[K9Fran]

1) The food will have diminished nutritional value so will not be giving the maximum benefit it could when it was fresh, hence you're not actually losing all that much by not eating it.

2)Why eat something just for the sake of 'using it up'? If you don't need the calories or nutrition then it's only going to be wasted anyway - only via the sewage system instead of the bin collections.

3) Surely the answer is to buy less and and to only purchase what you realistically need, rather than to eat stale food and still buy more anyway?

 

1) Nutritional value is rarely the full reason for eating many things, particularly 'treats' like chocolate, crisps, etc.

2) If you eat something that's past it's best before date, you're not having to buy something new

3) See above........

 

There is a company called Approved Foods on the net who actively sell, at greatly reduced prices, food which is past it's BBD but still edible. I buy a lot of stuff from them every month as it helps me provide my family with a more varied diet for a lower price. ie - because I buy, for example, 4 packs of Savoury Rice for £1, I can afford to buy fresh salmon sides from Costco.

 

My parents were young adults during the war, so being 'thrifty' was part of my up bringing - like others I was taught to take responsibility for preparing food which wasn't 'off' and not wasting it. I'm still not brilliant at being able to tell 'off' milk, but I do OK on the rest. My family have NEVER had food poisoning of any sort. OH used to be a butcher for Tesco, and back then it was quite common to reduce loss by repacking meat which was close to it's best before date that looked OK and relabelling it. He's also taught me to spot reduced meat that has been reduced because it's not cosmetically attractive (from an anaemic animal perhaps) and on the converse side - meat may well be before it's BBD but has been mistreated in storage and therefore no edible - such as the protective gas membrane has been punctured (did you know most supermarket meat these days is packed in an inert gas to prevent it deteriorating, if this is released, it ages at a normal rate, which means it will go 'off' before it's BBD)

[cycas]

Is it really waste to throw away food that is past it's best before date? (excluding use by dates here deliberately).

I say 'No' because:

1) The food will have diminished nutritional value so will not be giving the maximum benefit it could when it was fresh, hence you're not actually losing all that much by not eating it.

How many people really choose their diet because of its nutritional content? But even if they did, Nutrition is a really dodgy science still. Anyway, I'm not convinced that blanket statements about how different foods age really works. The process in a blue cheese will be so different to the process in bread, or potatoes!

 

2)Why eat something just for the sake of 'using it up'? If you don't need the calories or nutrition then it's only going to be wasted anyway - only via the sewage system instead of the bin collections.

 

Because by using up what you already have, you don't need to spend more buying new food for your next meal (and buying in new food has its own set of environmental costs).

 

It's definitely possible to make a very fine meal from repurposed old food. For example, the other day I repurposed what was left of an old stale loaf of bread to make a blackberry and apple bread and butter pudding that would knock your socks off. Or it makes a great breadcrumb topping on a cheesy vegetable pie. Elderly eggs, as long as they are not actually off, will still do a fine job binding fresh, vitamin-packed veg together as a filling. And so on.

 

I'd be pretty surprised if anyone could identify the onion that had started to sprout a bit, or the peppers that had a mouldy bit on one end that had to be cut off, once that veg is in a stew or a curry.

 

And as for live cheese - a supermarket best before dates are quite absurd for cheese. I do try not to buy cheese from supermarkets anyway, but when I do it's laughable to see at the cheese counter a lovely brie that is just starting to come into its prime marked down because it's 'best before today'. When it's obvious that it really needs a couple more days to mature to its gloopy loveliest.

 

Actually, our lovely local cheese shop always gives us a discount for buying their cheddar that is starting to 'blue' because some people have this thing that cheddar shouldn't have blueing: we reckon the blue is the best bit! It's cheese: if it hadn't already gone off, you'd need a bottle!

 

3) Surely the answer is to buy less and and to only purchase what you realistically need, rather than to eat stale food and still buy more anyway?

 

Indeed, but unless you are only buying expensive complete pre-prepared meals, shop every day for that day's meals, or have an absolutely fixed routine and never have unexpected guests, it is quite difficult to do this with complete accuracy. It's hard enough for 1 or 2 people, the food needs of a large family must be so variable and hard to predict! And of course many people don't have a lot of freezer space (me included, I wish I had more room for another freezer).

 

 

PS. This 'monologue' came about from shops no longer removing BB expired food like they used to, due to the govn. report recently (and my annoyance at having to take it back to ask for a refund - if I'm going to spend money on food then I'm not spending it on food that tastes bad and has less nutrition than a same priced item!)

 

I do agree that old food should generally either not be sold, or should be sold clearly marked, and that if supermarkets are doing this then it's purely a profit thing.

 

However, I think that's a whole different issue to people who have bought fresh food but not eaten it for some reason chucking it and buying more, just because the date on the side looks wrong.

[Mrs Mop]

like you money is very tight here, there have been times when all I have had to eat has been cereals and no money to buy anything else, my dogs all eat well though.,

 

Is it really waste to throw away food that is past it's best before date? (excluding use by dates here deliberately).

I say 'No' because:

1) The food will have diminished nutritional value so will not be giving the maximum benefit it could when it was fresh, hence you're not actually losing all that much by not eating it.

 

I also say no, if food hasn't gone off it is fit to eat. These dates were brought in to get us to spend more money, no Government has stood up to the food manufacturers.

 

 

2)Why eat something just for the sake of 'using it up'? If you don't need the calories or nutrition then it's only going to be wasted anyway - only via the sewage system instead of the bin collections.

 

I never do use it up before its BB or use by date, I go by the product itself. Sometimes it doesn't last as long as it's sell by date, but often it will still be safe to eat for several days later.

 

Meat used to be "Hung" for several days first, this isn't done now so we are sold meat that is still red, meat doesn't taste a good when it is cooked still red, much better to wait a couple of days for the colour to change. To supermarkets meat is unfit to be eaten when like this but for centuries this is how it has been eaten.

 

 

 

3) Surely the answer is to buy less and and to only purchase what you realistically need, rather than to eat stale food and still buy more anyway?

 

I no longer buy fresh veg because I can't eat it all before it starts to go off, I have frozen instead. Most fresh veg is too big for me now I am on my own but fruit can be bought as and when I need it. I am wheat intollerant so only buy bread for the caravan, I do love peanut butter toast for breakfast and it is a treat then, I freeze the bread when I get it and only take enough slices with me for every morning while I am away.

 

Like quite a few others I was brought up being taught how to tell when food has gone off, during the 40s, I was only very likkle then, 'onest, and 50s it was common to buy eggs that have gone off, once you have smelt one of these you don't want to again, it makes me gag, I was also taught how to tell when an egg is rotten. Eggs in the supermarkets are roughly a week old so eggs still have quite a long time before they go off, much longer than the supermarkets say. If you put an egg in water, if it is bad it will float on the top, if it isn't, it stays on the bottom.

 

Maybe we should have a thread with hints on how to tell if food is fresh or not.

[blackmagic]

We survived for many, many years without 'best before' or 'sell by dates'.

 

My father loved cheese that was going mouldy - he said it was just penicillin.

 

My aunt made scones with sour milk. She used to save a bottle of milk until it went sour, especially to make them.

 

But, I can taste milk sour before anybody else. Other people can quite happily drink milk that I can't.

 

I was brought up to use food as long as it wasn't off. I still do that regardless of any dates on it. In fact, I rarely look at the dates on food, unless it goes off and I then check why.

 

I have opened a pack of strawberries today that are still 'in date' but they are over ripe and mushy.

[Helly]

I just rely on my nose. if it smells ok then i eat it although Im a lot more carefull about meat than i am veg fruit or yogurts. Cheese, at worst can be cut up so the mouldy bits may be binned but the majority is still edible.

 

I do however have a very sensible stomach and if its dodgy, I have about 30 mins from eating it to throwing it back up again.

[cycas]

We survived for many, many years without 'best before' or 'sell by dates'.

 

uuuuummmm. To be fair, lot of people did die, specially children: for most of history, badly stored, old or adulterated food has been a big problem. We are hugely lucky today that we can just go out and buy good fresh food that is clean and safe.

 

Which is of course why there is this problem with people having problems resisting the temptation to buy more than we can eat, or eat more than is good for us .

 

For most of our evolutionary history as a species, people who grabbed all the food that they could get hold of and stored it to eat later, or ate it and stored up fat for the lean times have had an advantage.

[snow]

I've bought from Approved Foods same as Fran, I was a little suspicious initially but went by the guidance on the FSA website which said the important date is not the best before date but the use by date - since reading up about food labels I've thrown far less away and happily eaten stuff thats past the supermarkets idea of when it's "best". Even with use by dates, it's possible to freeze those on the last day and extend their use further, or cook them and then freeze them.

 

I do most of my shopping online and have it delivered, I specify long use by dates but sometimes they do send me stuff through which has got best before dates all ending the same day and it's impossible to eat it all by that date - especially as I meal plan for a whole 7 days if I were to follow those dates we'd end up throwing away sometimes over half of the delivery long before the end of the week. I don't have a huge freezer but I do freeze stuff I haven't managed to use and will use it after the use by date if it's been frozen, similarly any tinned stuff we have every 6 months or so I go and swap tins round in the cupboards so the shorter dates are in the front, this is because when hubby decided to reorganise the cupboards he found tins there that were 2 years "out of date" - I used all of them aside from milk or eggs based canned goods and all were perfectly fine - the milk/egg based stuff I threw away (tinned custard & tinned desserts).

 

I rarely have any fresh fruit or veg to throw away, what I don't use the piggies eat