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Sell by dates in Tesco

(30 Posts)
Madmartha Tue 26-Jun-18 19:35:00

Picked up a package of celery today in Tesco and couldn’t find its sell-by-date even though it said it was ‘on the front’.
Found the fresh food manager who said their new policy was not to put on sell-by-dates as there was too much waste in their stores. He said it would be the same soon with meat although he personally didn’t like the idea and the same initiative (sic) was happening at Morrison’s and Sainsbury’s too. Apparently Tesco customers had said they buy fresh produce by sight not by sell-by-date! Well I don’t, and I want those sell-by-dates back, how about you?

seacliff Thu 28-Jun-18 08:07:53

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.

MaizieD Thu 28-Jun-18 09:29:56

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.

MaizieD Thu 28-Jun-18 09:31:31

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

SueDonim Thu 28-Jun-18 10:27:08

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!