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Supermarket 'Use by' dates



R

ringmerseagulltoo

Active member
Feb 16, 2012
439
Before Christmas I bought some cheeses to feed friends coming round. Amongst them were two packets of Brie, of which I only opened one at the time.

It was remarkably free of flavour, really disappointing so we just left the second. I have just opened it and it is like a different cheese. It has developed a full flavour and texture.

I must say that I normally only start a cheese beyond its 'best before' date but have never really tested the comparison.

Who determines the period before 'best before'? Is it the supermarket or is there some Pan European directive? Whoever it is has got it wrong, unless it's just to persuade us to throw cheese away so we buy more.
 






Tim Over Whelmed

Tim Over Whelmed

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 24, 2007
10,188
Arundel
Thunder Bolt said:
I ignore 'best before' and 'use by' dates. I use my eyes and nose to discern if food is still edible.
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Is 100% the right answer.

When developing a product companies send the product off for "shelf life testing", no company is ever going to take the life up to 100% of its expected life, so say a product has 14 days life, it's likely they'll go with use by of Production + 12 days. That is sent to the retailer who'll look at it and say, OK, stick 10 days life on etc etc!
 


beorhthelm

beorhthelm

A. Virgo, Football Genius
Jul 21, 2003
35,302
ringmerseagulltoo said:
Who determines the period before 'best before'? Is it the supermarket or is there some Pan European directive? Whoever it is has got it wrong, unless it's just to persuade us to throw cheese away so we buy more.
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its a combination of regulations and stock control. many items that dont/shouldnt have a sell by date are still required to have one, but generally the length of date is to control shelf life.
 






brakespear

brakespear

Doctor Worm
Feb 24, 2009
12,326
Sleeping on the roof
Primula example of Edam Euro regulations again.

Anyway to paraphrase (I think) David Mitchell on one of those many, many panel shows he now does - isn't that sort of the point of cheese? That it's already gone off?
 


B

BensGrandad

New member
Jul 13, 2003
72,015
Haywards Heath
In my stocktaking days I carried out the stocktaking at Maynards Wine gums staff club and was told that the wine gums were taken off of the shelf and sent back for repackaging 3 times with a 1 year date on each time as the rules didnt allow them to be marked as before 3 years later. The best before date was prefixed by a coded letter showing the original year of manufacture. So you could buy a packet that had 1 month left in date but in fact were nearly 3 years old.
 


DavidinSouthampton

DavidinSouthampton

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jan 3, 2012
16,582
There is, I believe, a difference between best before and use by dates - use by, as the words suggest, being indicative of something that might actually go wrong - i.e. bacteria rather than just freshness.

I can remember having a conversation, though, with our local butcher's a few years ago, whereby he said that a former trainee of hsi, who had gone off to work at ASDA, reported that ASDA were throwing meat away at a time when a normal butcher would be ready to sell it - i.e. having "hung" it. He also said he could have run his business on what ASDA were throwing away.

It is, though, the biggest ASDA in the country, I believe.
 
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GOM

GOM

living vicariously
Aug 8, 2005
3,225
Leeds - but not the dirty bit
beorhthelm said:
its a combination of regulations and stock control. many items that dont/shouldnt have a sell by date are still required to have one, but generally the length of date is to control shelf life.
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Always amuses me that vinegar has a BB / Use by date
 


W

Waynflete

Well-known member
Nov 10, 2009
1,105
DavidinSouthampton said:
There is, I believe, a difference between best before and use by dates - use by, as the words suggest, being indicative of something that might actually go wrong - i.e. bacteria rather than just freshness.

I can remember having a conversation, though, with our local butches a few years ago, whereby he said that a former trainee of hsi, who had gone off to work at ASDA, reported that ASDA were throwing meat away at a time when a normal butcher would be ready to sell it - i.e. having "hung" it. He also said he could have run his business on what ASDA were throwing away.

It is, though, the biggest ASDA in the country, I believe.
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This is right. Use by refers to things that might actually do you harm if you eat them, e.g. food poisoning. Best before just means something might go stale and/or not be as nice to eat.
 
















Lord Bracknell

Lord Bracknell

On fire
Jul 5, 2003
39,499
104 Upper Grosvenor Street, Mayfair
When I worked in a pharmacy (decades ago!), we used to stock diabetic chocolate Easter eggs. We sold a few but, when Easter came round, the unsold ones were taken off the shelves and put into a storage cupboard for next year. I guess some of the unsold eggs must have been 'put away for next year' at least four or five times.

Nobody died. But nobody knew, since this was before the invention of the Best Before Date.
 


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