Sell by dates to go

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Sell by dates to go

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wishus

Joined: 24 Oct 2005
Posts: 777
Location: Northampton, East Midlands

Posted: Thu Sep 15, 11 8:47 am Post subject: Sell by dates to go
Seems like a sensible thing to me! https://uk.news.yahoo.com/tons-food-waste-marks-end-sell-date-000519400.html Only I do buy a lot of Asda whoopsies... they might be in short supply

ros

Joined: 19 Jul 2005
Posts: 2469
Location: Beds

Posted: Thu Sep 15, 11 9:04 am Post subject:
They should get rid of the best befores as well , supermarkets like waste if it is from your kitchen and not their shelves can see them shortening them a bit if it helps sales. Use-by is the only one with any safety implications, I don't see why the others are confusing though - and will miss 10p pints of cream if they get their targets right in future

kirstyfern

Joined: 03 Jan 2010
Posts: 1574
Location: Great Dunmow, Essex

Posted: Thu Sep 15, 11 9:36 am Post subject:

I agree that something need to be done.
But they are still keeping the Use By and Best Before Dates.

I think they should have 'Manufactured on' dates on chocolate, crisps, tins, etc (as they do on cosmetics) and recommend consuming within X weeks / months / years of opening (like the little logo on hand cream, medications, etc). This would show the customers how long food takes to get to the supermarket shelves (the same big tins of sweets can be put out for 2 christmas's & 2 easters (when they are on offer) at our co-op as they only sell when they are half price!) and also give the staff a date to check that stock rotation is being carried out.

Products such as eggs and cakes which had a 'sell by' or 'display until' date will not have this any more, on eggs this was 6 days as there was generally 6 eggs in a box so the customer would have time to eat the 6 eggs if bought reduced on the display until date. This will only increase waste in the home rather than the supermarket IMO...

Co-Op will not sell food beyond the Best Before Date (Chocolate, Crisps, etc) as they say it is illegal, yet every corner shop I've gone to sells this stuff, it is not illegal just co-op are worried about litigation. This is where we are going wrong.

Like the lady who got taken to court for 'stealing'' from a Tescos skip, that is soooooo wrong, the food should be left out in open trollies for the homeless, with a sign saying 'help yourself, consume at your own risk' - the sandwich shops in London put out all unsold food out on teh doorstep each day.

There will still be plenty of fresh food bargains as most meat / fish / dairy / some fruit and veg have 'use by' dates and supermarkets are terrible at over ordering

I agree that Lidl / Aldi have the right idea - low prices all the time rather than BOGOF which a lot of people buy and then throw away. The government should BAN BOGOF (which only encourages food waste) and ENCOURAGE HALF PRICE deals - should we start a campaign

Last edited by kirstyfern on Thu Sep 15, 11 9:41 am; edited 1 time in total

Shan

Joined: 13 Jan 2009
Posts: 9075
Location: South Wales

Posted: Thu Sep 15, 11 9:39 am Post subject:
It is sensible in theory but the supermarkets will simply change their tactics and shorten the best before date to compensate.

kirstyfern

Joined: 03 Jan 2010
Posts: 1574
Location: Great Dunmow, Essex

Posted: Thu Sep 15, 11 9:53 am Post subject:

Shan wrote:

It is sensible in theory but the supermarkets will simply change their tactics and shorten the best before date to compensate.

I doubt that they are that bothered.

TBH 'display until' and 'sell by' dates are not the biggest problem. Getting rid of them allows the supermarkets more time to sell food that is deteriorating in quality. Perhaps supermarkets should EXTEND the display until / sell by date to all foods carrying a 'use by' date so we get fresher food / more bargains and more time to use the food at home after purchasing it!

Most supermarket 'waste' happens because the dates are not checked / missed and the food ends up in the bin rather than being reduced. If the food is reduced and sold then that is ok, if it is binned as the date was missed then that is wrong - and this is very common.

This is where I think food should be allowed to be sold beyond the 'best before' date as long as the customer is aware of this. (it is allowed but not done) Selling beyond the 'use by' date is more controversial. If all products had a display until date but could be sold (reduced) beyond this date until the 'use by' date then less stuff would be missed by the supermakets and thrown away before it got reduced...

We used to have a staff only 10p section in the warehouse but the co-op decided that they would not allow it any more in case staff deliberately let food go out of date so they could buy it

The way to control it is to make a responsible person (used to be me) do all the date checking and reducing and not be allowed to buy anything from that section themselves.

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