Sell by dates in Tesco

I'm not sure how I feel about this, really. I get what they're aiming at but will the consumer lose out? Suppose you buy a pack of strawberries which then turn to mush by the next day. Does that mean you have no come-back from the store, because they were edible at point of sale?

Not labelling meat is madness! How will stores manage their stock control without an indication of how old something is?

I recall the days before dates on meat, buying from a butcher, and it was not uncommon to have to throw away meat because it had gone off by the time I went to use it. The pong of rotting chicken or pork is not to be recommended!

Ooooh, apologies for typos. Fat fingers on tablet and proof reading failure.

Two things strike me.
One, turnover of veg in a supermerket wiil be so high that nothings likely to have been lurking on the shelves for long

Two. Carrots! Remsrks on 'freshness' might be applicable to 'new season' carrots but for a large part of the year theyvwill have been in storage for ages before they get to the supermarket... I think yhis makes 'use by', 'sell by'or any other 'by' a trifle irrelevant.

I wouldn't buy any packaged 'fresh' meat, or milk, without a '.. by' date on it, but then, I only buy meat from the local butchers, so I know it's fine.

I agree with annep. For instance, the tesco carrots had no date on. I want to buy the freshest veg I can, not some that have been around for a week or more.

Then I can choose when I will eat them at home. I go by look, smell, feel. I am not wasting things, I put old veg on a soup. I just want to buy it as fresh as possible.

No sell by dates on meat coming next? Can’t believe that!

I never bother with sell by dates on vegetables, but some fruits eg strawberries, raspberries, I’d like to know they’re not going to grow a furry skin by next morning.

And as for chicken etc...no way am I buying a chicken without one. Who knows what’s lurking beneath that plastic coat...well we do, don’t we? At least 50% in some stores carry nasty bacteria.

When did everything start to be dated? We all survived childhood without them....

I was reading not long ago (in some waiting room mag) that sell by dates on fresh stuff are too stringent as they’re there to cover the store selling stuff which may possibly be starting to deteriorate. Use by dates are equally over stringent as they have to assume the food isn’t correctly stored once its in the home. There’s always at least three days leeway. I ignore them.

Open jars of stuff like pesto and pastes, that have lurked at the back of the fridge though I do take a bit more notice of the dates as there’s additives in them with long names and I’m not a chemist! I think you did right Bathsheba.

Bathsheda I think you did the right thing.

I was clearing out the fridge today and found three opened jars, all saying things along the lines of "refrigerate after opening and use within...." 5 days/2 weeks or whatever. Two of these were not just days after opening, not even weeks, but months (buried at the rear of the top shelf of the fridge and forgotten ). They were umami paste and harissa paste. The third was pesto sauce, three weeks old, and should have been used within 5 days of opening. They all looked absolutely fine, and smelt absolutely fine, but I threw them all away. Was I being too cautious? What would others have done?

Very often I use vegetables and fruit long after the date I bought them. But I like a date on the produce so that I pick the freshest, otherwise you may buy something thats been there a day or a week. You just don't know. Sorry but I will go to the market or local shop if they do that. I definitely want a date on meat or I will NOT buy.

Please leave the use by dates on milk though to avoid the Lumpy Surprise Special cup of tea

What Pittcity said!!

Sell-by dates are meaningless - if you need to look at a date, it's the use by date you need to look for. But I'm with everyone who says use your common sense - all these dates just lead to needless food waste.

Why don't they take it out of the plastic? We don't look for dates on loose produce!

My older GC are obsessed with dates on food and won't eat perfectly good stuff they find in my fridge if the date is even 1 day out so I'm really pleased that such information is being removed. Common sense reigns on something at last!

I use my senses - including common sense. I agree that too much food is wasted by using dates on the packaging.

I messed up in my earlier post.
I should have said 'best before' date is useful.
We ignor 'use by' prefering to go by smell, apperance and maybe a tiny taste. H throws caution to the wind and will happily eat sonething 'best before' even 5-6 days past the date. He's suffered no ill effects up to now.

I rarely bother to look at sell-by dates, too used to local butcher's shop where food and vegetables are displayed un-packaged.

you can see by colour and texture. too much food is wasted.

I do look at "sell by" when buying packaged products as by picking the latest date I know I am getting the latest delivery and therefore the fresher product. However, I also use my eyes and fingers and much prefer to buy loose rather than packaged.

"Use by" dates aren't so useful as they are often far too early and food is perfectly safe for days afterwards.

Use by is fine with me.
I would actually be happy with no date at all but understand the shops need use by, it is probably needed for stock control.

I agree 'sell by' dates are superfluous particularly on fruit and veg. I do think 'use by' is useful though.

Sell by dates are really not necessary on the majority of foods - heavens, how did we manage years ago? Why do some of you say you wouldn’t throw out food past its SBD? I’ll tell you why - because you’re perfectly able to judge for yourself whether or not the food is still ok. Ergo, SBD’s are not necessary
Having said that, I would not be happy to see them go from meat and fish, but as long as there is still a use by date, there shouldn’t be a problem.

Who needs sell by dates. It's very wasteful!

I find a use by date helps me make decisions. I will feel very wary about buying raw meat with no guide date. Thinking about it, why can't they simply change the dates to "guide date"?