‘Best before’ not to do with safety
‘These foods can last for years’
“This needs to stop. They [are] selling us expired food and making their own cooldrink coz u find coke in a fanta bottle; fish tin but u find beans… [sic].”
That tweet‚ posted by “Bongani” on Thursday‚ covers some of the many food “crimes” foreign shopkeepers stand accused of‚ thanks to a series of unscientific videos on social media: the selling of old‚ allegedly “rotten” food; passing off inferior fizzy drinks in CocaCola bottles and‚ more bizarrely‚ totally fake foods like eggs.
Professor Gunnar Sigge‚ head of Stellenbosch University’s food science department‚ said foodborne diseases were not caused by harmful colourants. “That … would be a poisoning‚ not a disease.”
Coca-Cola said it hasn’t received a single complaint.
SA’s Egg Organisation’s acting CEO Chris Mason said he believed the fake egg production video was a hoax.
While the counterfeiting of food requires urgent investigation‚ what the authorities are not telling the nation is that it is neither illegal nor unsafe to sell “shelf stable” food past its “best before” date. The fear and loathing of “expired” foods runs deep‚ based on a misunderstanding. It’s perhaps unsurprising that the Consumer Goods and Services Ombud has received various claims‚ “including a claim seeking compensation for a miscarriage and the loss of an RDP home following an illness allegedly caused by stale crisps”.
The blanket term “expiry date” is grossly misleading. Perishable foods such as meat and dairy products do pose a safety risk after their “use-by” dates. But it’s a very different story with the “shelf stable” products forcibly removed by police and looters from foreignowned spaza shops – long-life milk‚ canned food‚ maize meal.
“These foods can last for years and ‘best before’ labelling is quite irrelevant‚ as it has nothing to do with food safety but rather food quality‚” said Dr Lucia Anelich of the SA Association of Food Science and Technology. “Perfectly safe food is often discarded because the perception is created that it is no longer safe. This contributes to food waste‚ a globally increasing problem.”