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THE FOOD SAFETY Authority of Ireland has expressed fears over the number of people who ignore use-by dates on food – saying it is “alarming” that the date stamps are not given more attention.
A new survey showed that almost half of consumers believe it is OK to eat foods that have passed their use-by dates.
However, the FSAI warned that even if products look, smell and taste fine, they may be contaminated with harmful bacteria.
So today we’re asking: Do you pay attention to use-by dates on food?
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Do I use food past it’s sell by date? I buy food past it’s sell by date! Absolutely nothing wrong with most of the food that gets wasted in this country. The ‘Reduced To Clear’ aisle is your best friend in times like these.
well said. I cannot believe people throw so much food out because supermarkets want you to buy MORE MORE MORE,,,, my father and mother are hilarious – they throw very little out, and the reason is they are in their seventies, when people barely had fridges when they were younger. meat fish and dairy is all i am careful about. And the reduced to clear is the best aisle in any shop! particularly marks and spencers!
Use by dates are way off the mark for many products…….I’d always judge by the look and smell of the food.
It says ‘use by’ not ‘will kill you after’
Now there’s an idea for a new stamp…
Brilliant!
If you’ve ever gotten food poisoning, believe me you’ll pay attention to sell-by dates.
Just got it last week, uuugh!
Even on tinned food?
Peoples immune system has got week, children in India eating from slums.
I have no problem with yogurt 3 months gone, fresh meat (red) 3-5 days over, pasta sauce 6 months, opened orange juice 6 weeks over, eat tinned beans last night with chicken 2010 on bottom of tin. My doctor does not know who I am, saw him 15 years ago for tetanus.
Too much antiseptic and detergents used nowadays. Just take a look at what a dog eats!, when did you see a sick dog last?, BTW would not eat meat with furr on it!
I pay attention but it depends on the product. I’d be wary of mince but a fillet steak – I’d always trust my nose. People seem to be intimidated by food…its a reason why so many people are overweight these days.
It’s not clear cut. It depends on the food imo. I’d never eat something like coleslaw which is passed its date but if I had a steak which was frozen all the time then i’d have no problem eating it if it’s a day or two passed its date.
I think if you freeze things it extends thier best before date, someone mentioned to me that there is a difference between “sell by” and “best before”, not sure though ??
Sell by is for the store, to make sure they get it off the shelf in time. Best before is guidance for consumers for optimum use of product.. There is also “Use By” which may be taken as a more definite indication of storage life.
Storage conditions are more important then time in storage, up to a point. I have had produce from supermarkets that is unfit for use well before the indicated dates, so I’m not sure those dates are much use. Even if you only bought it today, take a good look and sniff at it!!
You’d have to with our local Dunnes Stores. Learned that the hard way of too many times getting home from the shop to find what I’d bought was rancid meat with a Use By date of two weeks before.
Agreed, Dunnes Stores here in Galway are constantly selling me rotting fruit and veg.
My purchases are nearly all from the reduced aisle. Use your nose to check food. Really believe these dates are there to make us throw out food so we will buy more.
Blanket rule for meats, if it’s out of date it’s a no. If it’s in date and smells bad it’s also a no.
Otherwise if it’s use by i’ll stick to it, if it’s best before as long as it looks and tastes ok i’m cool with that.
Don’t forget Use By dates are different to Best Before dates – I don’t worry about Best Before dates too much, but Use By I’m fairly strict.
I agree Evelyn, the amount of food thrown out by supermarkets is criminal.
You ever eat a steak that’s been in the fridge for 2-4 days after its use by date?
Absolutely fantastic, softer, more flavour. Can’t beat it.
My mantra is “best before does not mean rotten after”. I do not eat much meat but do stick to use by dates when I do. As for yoghurts, cheese, sauces, dips, fruit and veg etc, I will eat these past the use by/best before date if they look and smell ok. And i have never gotten sick as a result!!
Found 2 packets of ham in a leading supermarket last week they were dated 30th October still displayed for sale where’s the controls there????.brought it to staff members attention,got a shrug of his shoulders instead of an explanation.
What leading supermarket ?
I’ve seen that a lot recently!
I’d only ever worry about chicken, fish, pork, and things like coldslaw- everything else comes down to smell and cop on.
If you’re unsure about eggs though, just pop them in a bowl of water – if they’re lying on the bottom they’re fresh, if they float then they’re off.
Often the food goes off before the use by date.
You’re not checking it before you buy
Food can be fresh at time of purchase but gone off before the use by date.
Use by & Best Before are totally different things! Best before means it is at is best before that date but it is safe to consume after. It won’t go off on the stroke of midnight! I used to work in a shop & we would reduce sweets & that type of thing coming up to their BBE date & despite a few know it alls saying it was ‘Illegal’ to sell past BB products (it’s not!), we had a lot of customers who would go straight to our ‘bargain bin’ & buy loads of stuff past it’s BB date. We never hid the fact it was short dated, that is illegal I think.
Crazy what people dump due to being so I’ll informed. If its use by then obviously be a bit more careful.
EU food laws state there must be a use/sell by or a best before date on ALL food and beverage products. Eg a bottle of water will boast that it’s been in the ground since before time began however will have a 12 month date stamped on it.
As a rule of thumb with a few exceptions a sell by date is an in house quality mark, a use by date means the product will deteriorate after the date and the product is not 100% safe to eat whereas a best before date means the product will deteriorate after the date and is deemed safe to eat.
Hope this helps clarify.
i call the out of date section, “eat today or die”. i would buy some things such as red beef, lamb, fresh veg/fruit, cheese. never fish or chicken. then use my intelligence and nose. my god what did we do before ‘the man’ put a stamp on it?
My friend ate musli in my dads that was 5 years outta date! yesterday i ate tahini that had been opened one year and was well out a date. some people are more sensitive to bactera than others tho
I will always trust my nose and rarely take any notice of use by dates…except for fish maybe, but even then your nose will tell you more than a date on a label ever will. I have only once had food poisoning and that was in India when I ate undercooked chicken.
I was food poisoned from restaurant food once and it was awful, but it hasn’t affected my attitude to use-by dates. Generally speaking, I won’t risk it with meat, but for everything else including fruit, veg, breads, dairy products etc., as long as it smells okay and isn’t growing any kind of mould, I’ll use it.
Food producers, packagers, and sellers probably have to be ultra-conservative with these dates to cover themselves adequately, so I’d say they really underestimate how long it’ll last. How long did we roam the Earth before use-bys came along?
90% of the food out there will be ok after its used by date. The only products I keep an eye on more are reat meats and fish. I have a jar of pickles and pickled oninions at home that have a use by date? I sure there are use by dates on salt too.
Just this morning I had to return meat that was “best before” November 21st but had turned brown.
There is a difference between “best before” and “use by”, with “use by” really more of a warning. However, a bit of common sense goes a long way in preventing the unnecessary wasting of food.
Anyone know where I can get a list of basic foods that can and cannot be frozen!
Cheers Laura
I am very fussy about use by dates . I would never use it after the use by date ,Unless I freeze it and use it within the time stated ‘if frozen’. As a kid it was always the sniff test method and I hated it . Never sure if it would be my last supper left me upset.. :)
Some people are confused by the date mark. “Best Before” is not “Use By”.
If it’s best before a date, then it must be pretty good after that date! :)
I found a frozen meal that was out-of-date by three years and stuck it in microwave to see how it would turn out. All the flavour had been leached from it and the texture was weird but I had a taste and didn’t keel over. If we educate ourselves on how to safely judge fresh food by smell, texture and colour then we don’t need to rely on sell by dates. I prefer to smell dairy products and meat to judge for myself. Often these will have an okay sell-by-date when the supermarket hasn’t stored them correctly. A friend of mine worked for a big chain supermarket and she said that the manager used to force employees to return warm yoghurts etc to the cool sections (and put at the front of shelf) if they had been found abandoned in the aisles!
since being made redundant i pay serious attention to it, i need food to last as long as possible.
we didn’t have “best before” dates on food when I was a child, none of us ever got food poisoning, just use your nose, eyes and common sense, too much food being wasted – a really shameful thing when so many are starving.
why isnt there a group going around checking these stores?? my local supervalue in ballaghadreen in roscommon is always selling stuff out of date were at the stage were we check every single ting we buy there its a disgrace
It seems to me that the very thing that these regulations of “best before” and “use by” are supposed to make clear, only serve more to confuse. No surprise there – after all it is an EU regulation!!! In addition, on an item that has a BB date of, say 19.11.2011, does it mean that at a minute past midnight on 20.11.2011, that the item will be ravaged by an army of life threatening bacteria who have been waiting patiently until the moment to invade arrives?? As one who hates food waste, I will always use the sensory test. If it looks and smells fine, then it usually is. It’s much better to be guided by one’s senses than to be dictated to by those who only encourage people to dump perfectly good food.
Why do all the polls in the Journal have an “I don’t know” option??
What’s the point? It just makes the chart less clear!
I would not buy over date but I love a good bargain and always catch the JUST expiring shelf at Tesco ;-)
Does anyone on this forum ever wash their red meat/ chicken with water before cooking it?
They didn’t have freezers and fridges back in the olden days, spices, salt and sugar and smoking houses for curing meat were used for killing bacteria. That’s why Indian cooking use a lot of spices, as many moons ago it helped take away the taste of the rotten meat..:)
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