MoneySaving Poll:When do you chuck away best-before foods?

A question about : MoneySaving Poll:When do you chuck away best-before foods?

Poll started 13 October 2014

When do you chuck away best-before foods?

Each year the average household wastes Ј470 by throwing away food. Are you a chucker or a keeper when it comes to food that's past its 'best-before' date?

Please choose the option CLOSEST to your USUAL stance (be honest!).

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Best answers:

• I voted the second option but if I was really honest I would have to say it depends on the product. Fish I don't use after the use by date & am cautious even then, meat I'd use a couple of days over if it looked/smelt alright and be cautious also re the source. Fruit & veg I would use until it was obviously not a good idea. I think a lot of these choices are down to what has ever made you ill. I have been ill several times from fish WELL within its use by date, so I am very cautious about fish.
• Ah yes, true .. I completely forgot about fresh veg and fruit. Apples, potatoes, carrots, etc, I regularly keep well past their best before date ... they can often last a month past with no problems. But meat, packaged food, dairy .. they're one or two max generally ... and sometimes meat doesn't last that long :-(
• I usually buy BBE foods after their date and eat them whenever.
  No need to waste food when many are starving elsewhere
• When do you chuck away best-before foods?
  When it's Mean and Green!
  
• What the hell has happened to common sense... ?
  oh yeah, it's became UN-common
  *USE BY means exactly that
  *DISPLAY UNTIL is purely there for the retailer[to aid stock rotation]
  *BEST BEFORE ~ did you know that stores can legally sell products for up to 1 MONTH AFTER this date? due to the fact that this date is purely an advisor date (YES REALLY! )
• No USE BY means if you do eat it after this date then we accept even less responsibility for anything bad that happens. That is why you use your eyes and your nose before using. But you need to do that anyway as it is possible to buy food that is off well before that date, cheese seems to be a prime example.
• I am a big fan of using common sense, we managed fine before we had these dates, no freezers or even fridges, look,smell, taste.
  I buy a lot of my food reduced on the best before date as you can get some mega bargains this way.
• I tend not to use fresh food such as dairy, meat, fish after a use by date and would see how it looked if it was past a best before date.
  When fruit and veg look past their best, they get thrown into a soup/stew/crumble.
  I don't even look at the date on cupboard items such as tins, packets etc.
• Like others, I found this a bit hard to answer because it varies so much between types of food.
  Dairy stuff (except for cheese) I tend to stick to the date - and in fact milk occasionally smells off before the date in which case I chuck it. Can't stand off milk.
  Mincing meat (including making sausages, burgers, etc) mixes bacteria right into the middle of it, so I tend to ditch these a day or two after use by. Solid cuts of meat I will keep a bit longer, going by smell and appearance rather than date.
  For some reason I'm not worried about cheese going off - I'll keep that till it's visibly growing hair, and sometimes cut off the bad bits and eat the rest. Fancy French cheese does sometimes start tasting funny before growing (extra) mould on the surface; if so I give up on it at that point.
  Fruit and veg I go entirely on looks - and because the dates on it from the supermarket are quite short and I don't shop that often, I'm probably eating it "out of date" more often than in-date! It's always fine.
  Dry packet stuff I'll happily use months out of date as long as it looks ok.
  Cooking something restarts the clock - I'll give leftovers a few days even if the ingredients would have been chucked if not cooked. The exception is rice and couscous - these start growing nasty stuff very quickly and they're cheap anyway, so I don't keep leftovers of them.
  Don't remember ever getting ill from bad food at home.
  Pete
• I used to work for a company that sold veg to supermarkets.
  The best before for most supermarket veggies is based on 'How long will it look perfect for' i.e. if it's garlic with a 20 day shelf-life, you won't be able to tell the difference between a bulb of garlic that's been on the shelf for 1 day, and one that's been there for 20. NOT how long it will be 'good' for.
  Also interesting to not that the best before dates were based on when the veg was put into the packaging (or the trays in some cases)
  So, you'd get things that were pulled out of the same field on the same day, but because they were packed over the course of a week they'd have 7 days different 'shelf life.'
• Best Before I pretty much ignore (in particular on dry stuff.. I use spices for example that are years after best before date! cans can go several years as well. in fact in france there exist specialised discounter stores that sell after best before stuff).
  Many people don't seem to realise that eggs are in the Best Before and not Use By category.. I remember when the date on them went weeks more, so as long as it doesn't smell, it's ok (I might avoid using raw/undercooked if more than 3 weeks after date though).
  Vegs/Fruit, until they mold/shrivel (and even possibly then), they're fine.
  For Use By dates, well, it depends what it is:
  I find dairy goes easily after (yoghurts are fine for even a week or 2 after. Milk varies, the skimmier the longer it last, skimmed one often good for 2-3 days after date, full rarely good more than a day after... it only goes in the sink once it starts lumping. cheese is completely fair game until things start to grow on it, and even then can cut off those parts).
  For raw meat and fish otoh, I strictly respect the date (in fact fish can go bad before the date).
  The only exception are ham and smoked salmon, for those a handful of days can be ok (I judge on sight/smell).
  I also completely ignore the 'once opened consume within..' and just judge on sight/smell if it's still ok.
  Being single, it's impossible to respect as often even the smallest (and therefore most expensive) sizes are too much for 1 person and I don't like eating the same thing 2 days in a row!
• Cheese in my opinion is gone off milk so how can it go off? I scrape off the mould (too tight to cut it off) mind you it rarely lasts long enough in our house to get to that.
  I bought a six pint bottle of full fat milk while on holiday in devon (it was reduced as only had a day to go), bought it back half used and it was still fine 11 days later.
  Yoghurt is also gone off milk, so use these until they separate and then I tend to mix them first and taste, before throwing.
  Rice, if cooked and unused, goes in the freezer. Cooked pasta goes in the dog if not being used in a meal the following day.