Solving the ‘best before’ confusion
‘‘Best before’’ and ‘‘use by’’ dates on food are causing confusion for consumers – and tonnes of wastage every year, researchers say.
British supermarket chain Morrisons will reportedly remove use-by dates from milk packaging and instead encourage shoppers to sniff their milk to work out whether it is fresh. The bottles will still carry best before dates, as milk does in New Zealand.
Morrisons is the first British supermarket to make the change for milk, after scrapping use-by dates on some of its own-brand yoghurt and hard cheese ranges in 2020.
Reports say 7 per cent of British milk production is wasted. There are similar concerns in this country. A total of 8426 tonnes of dairy products is thrown away every year.
So how do use by and best before dates work?
Food items with a shelf life less of than two years are sold with a date.
Use by dates are required for health and safety reasons to reduce the risk of people getting sick, and are on perishable foods such as meat, poultry and deli products.
Best before dates provides information about a food’s quality. Food can be sold and eaten after the best before date as long as it is stored properly. But it may have lost some nutritional value and taste different.
‘‘The best before date on food is a quality indicator and not strictly a food safety issue,’’ Steve Flint, professor of food safety and microbiology at Massey University, said.
Yet, Consumer NZ says New Zealanders throw out more than 220,000 tonnes of food a year, more than half of which could have been eaten.
Bread and vegetables make up the majority of this waste.
Flint said ‘‘the main problem we have is ensuring the consumers understand what they mean’’.
‘‘A suggestion would be to have a label to replace the ‘use by’ date that is ‘do not use after’,’’ he said.
So how long will food last? It all depended on the water and protein content of the food, its freshness and quality when you bought it as well as how it had been stored, Consumer NZ research writer Belinda Castles said.
‘‘As well as date marking information, it’s also important to follow specific storage conditions on a product. For example, whether a product should be refrigerated or eaten within a certain period after opening.’’
Bread
Data from Love Food Hate Waste shows we bin 15,174 tonnes of bread a year. Bread keeps the longest in the freezer, but if the loaf is in the pantry it should be kept in its packaging and stored in a cool dry area– ideally in a bread tin. Stored properly, it can last up to a week in a cupboard.
Eggs
Eggs last up to three to five weeks in the fridge and can be eaten for two days after the best before date. Use the float test to determine whether they have gone off. If they don’t sink in a pot of water, approach with caution.
Dairy products
Dairy products, such as milk and yoghurt, will smell sour and curdle when they are off. Milk should be fine up to a week after its best before date, provided it has been stored in the fridge the whole time, while yoghurt can last two weeks in the fridge.
Canned food
The holy grail of every emergency kit around the country, many canned goods don’t even have a date. As long as the can is not badly damaged, the food is safe to eat for years.
Chocolate
You don’t need to throw away your stash of treats if they have been sitting there a while. You can safely eat chocolate after its best before date. It should last up to two years.