Hi,

Have you ever wondered how we all managed years ago with out SELL BY DATES on all our items?

Denese

I only look at sell-by-dates for things like meat and dairy .
For fruit , veg , and bread etc i go on how it looks , smells and feels .
The various dates are too confusing anyway - display until / sell by / use by etc .

We either all keeled over and dropped dead or we used our common sense.  I rarely check these dates, I can tell by the condition and/or smell of fresh food.  Tinned and dry food usually lasts way past sell by.  Sell by is exactly what it says it is - the date it must be sold by.  Consume by is different, but rarely used.  I have found that anything with a Best Before date will last sometime a couple of weeks longer in the fridge, eg eggs. 

There was a programme which said only worry about 'Use By' as thats for fresh meat and dairy, Sell by is only for the supermarkets to go by and best before means for things like chocolate it doesnt go off but tastes better if eaten before the best before date from what I can gather!

I NEVER check the dates on anything!!!!!!! I go first by smell, then by looks. I'm still alive :-)

I use milk that is way over it's sell by date... pretty obvious if your milk is off! If I didn't I would throw away more than I use... even worse is when something is within it's use by date and is blatantly rotten. Annoying! :-P

> I only look at sell-by-dates for things like meat and dairy .
>

Thats what i do, most of the time the date it shows, isnt the date it has to be eaten by anyway, however with mean and dairy i am careful

I find meat and dairy the easiest things to determine freshness.  It becomes so obvious when they are not fit to eat.

>Have you ever wondered how we all managed years ago with out SELL BY DATES on all our items?

Exactly the same way as I do now, because I never bother to read them. I can see and smell if something is off.

If it's dodgy at all I just give it to the other half :-D  -  isn't that what everyone does

Yes. :-) I actually have a corner of the fridge where I put things I no longer fancy and he knows when he is browsing that he can have things from that corner without worrying about whether they were earmarked for a meal or whatever.

>If it's dodgy at all I just give it to the other half :-D  -  isn't that what everyone does confused

Certainly the way it works in this house :-D  If OH decides it's even too iffy for him, then the dogs get it :-)  Can't remember the last time we threw food out.

>I actually have a corner of the fridge where I put things I no longer fancy and he knows when he is browsing that he can have things from that corner without worrying about whether they were earmarked for a meal or whatever.

Great idea, Isabel...might have to implement that one :-)  It might help to avoid rows like the unholy one which ensued after a very expensive pack of parma ham was consumed 'as a snack'....

Teri, my OH is the opposite to me - he can often be heard bawling at me across the aisle in the supermarket "CHECK THE LABEL FOR THE DATE" - whereas I could quite happily eat something 2-3 days out of date - I hate wasting food but he is sooo fussy and will always pick the milk from the back of the shelf with the longest use by date on !!

My friend will not touch something that is past the best before date, let alone the use by date. I've known him to thrown away chocolate :-O and lager :-O before!!!! Just becuase the date is up even though the item is clearly fine. Now he knows to pass things like that on to me :-)

I don't take any notice of use by dates either, in the majority of cases. I will look for long dates on milk, yoghurts etc, but only as a guide to how long they are supposed to last. I have rummaged in many of the 'offers' of things due to expire 'today' and bought many good bargains, some even looking fresher than the full priced ones! keep it well at home and it will last, after all we are the ones to judge if something is off, which is why we didnt die before the dates were put on :) No doubt many of you will have seen, as I have, meat in supermarkets within the sell by date that I wouldn't touch with a bargepole! Together with fruit and veg, so no, dates mean nothing to me, the produce speaks for itself.

I grab things from the back of the shelf in the hopes that it may still be in date when I remember to eat it. We do have one rule though, if is not good enough for us it is not good enough for the dogs, talking off, contaminated here not just stale, we all eat stale only difference being ours will be grilled or toasted the dogs straight from the fridge.