Use by dates

I've used soft, wrinkly peppers up by cooking them and they were fine. Obviously, if they're brown, mouldy or slimy they go in the compost bin.

I always store apples in the fridge. They store them chilled commercially anyway. I think the worst thing that happens with chilled potatoes is that their starch turns to sugar.

Use your nose! Use your eyes!

Unless they are visibly rotten, and smell and taste ok, why not? I regularly use milk and cream long after the use by dates - when you think that apples onions and potatoes were stored over winter it’s a cunning strategy of the food industry to make you think after random dates you must throw away and buy more.

Unless they are mouldy or have lots of dark brown specks I would use them.

"Waste not, want not" was drummed into me as a child!

Such labels destroys common sense. What would you do if it was not so labeled: look, smell, touch and for somethings even a touch taste.

If they look ok why not eat them. Sell by dates are sometimes ridiculous

I agree fully with fizzers and others. If they look OK, then use them! (Even if they are a bit "sad" you can cut of the tatty bits and use the rest in a pasta sauce.)

Most Lidls vegetables and fruit have no sell by date. I go to Waitrose for my organic veg and fruit and they all have sell by dates. Just be sensible as others have said. You wont die if you eat a wrinkled pepper.

If veg look OK I’ll use them. Pearl79 makes a good point about us not being sold out of date food.

Never heard of this blueskies , wonder if anybody else has.
Keep my pots for jackets and salads in the fridge drawer.

I remember going caravanning to Yugoslavia before the uprising and the shops only had vegetables that had long passed their sell by date - we ate them and are still here. I would be more concerned about the chemicals and pesticides that have been put on them, which they will have or they would have long since gone off, and how the chemical changes may have affected them.

think about it, it's a guideline for people with no knowledge or understanding, and to prevent shopkeepers selling us old stock. but more importantly, if something was within date but covered in fur or smelled rank or otherwise obviously gone off, you wouldn't eat it! so why question your judgement for the reverse?

When my daughter complained when younger that veg was past it's use-by date, I pointed out that vegetables don't come out of the ground with a use-by date and to use her common sense - which is in danger of going out the window with today's youngsters and so much packaging!

I would use them if they aren't going off.
As others have said, it's quite obvious if they are soft/wrinkly/mouldy.

I rely on my nose rather than sell by dates. Never done us any harm.
I'd cut the peppers open &see what they look like inside- if seeds have gone brown sling 'em. If nice & cream eat'em.

Wondering if it is true potatoes and apples must not be kept in the fridge. Supposed to make them carcinogenic but could be an old wives tale. Who to believe?

My sister said this morning that when she helped my brother to move house they cleared out the pantry. They had bets on what would be the earliest date. And the winner was ......... 2008.

Good choice farview on diching the plastic wrapped veg,I buy loose and the amount I need from my local Greengrocer I can pick what I want and support a local business.

Thank you all...yes they look perfect...going to use in an aubergine bake...going to ditch buying plastic wrapped veg....only do that now& again..but it's better buying loose/unwrapped and use one's own judgement without being bullied by use by dates etc

My daughter has a newish fridge and she has veg that keeps weeks after their recommended sell by dates.If they are soft and wrinkly bin then but otherwise use them as usual

Ignore all use by dates. I do.

Just make sure you cook them thoroughly before eating. Ellen Vannin Some nutritional vaalue will have declined but certainly not all. and these peppers will still be a good source of dietary fibre.

If they look , feel and smell fine then use them, no point wasting good food

Forgot to say that if you’d bought them loose rather than in cellophane, there wouldn’t be that use by date to put doubt in your mind and you’d just use common sense, just like they did in the olden days!

Agree with Pantglas.I would certainly use them rather than waste them.

I agree with pantglas2.
They could also go into some home made soup to add a slight bite. As long as they're not slimy, too wrinkled, smelly, growing fur, etc, they should be fine.