How could the SMs know how much 'dated' stuff was being ditched (edited to add: by the purchaser at home) when still edible? How is that possible? What they did know was how much 'old' stuff was being left on their shelves at their cost.
What I really want to know when I buy the more perishable kinds of fruit and veg is how long it's been sitting around in the shop. I'm not at all bothered about things like potatoes, carrots, apples, citrus and so on that keep for months if stored correctly and not bruised/slugged, and things like bananas and nectarines that are mosly sold under-ripe. Without dates I probably won't buy strawbs, rasps and salad leaves unless I know I can use them within a few days, and will just do without when I don't have time to shop for more. So it will save me money and in a very small way lose the shop some sales.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
I keep hearing about help available for home insulation, boilers, etc for those on benefits. I've emailed, I've called, I've filled in online forms, but I can't find any one who actually supplies said help.
Don't buy bagged salads @B3! Much cheaper to make your own mix. I buy the freshest looking and feeling loose veggies, firmest onions and so on and rely on feel, weight andsmell but not everyone grows up in a home where the parents know how to cook or what to cook or what is seasonal or how to check what is best so use-by dates are handy. The chestnut mushrooms I buy have the date picked on their label and the SM has a sell quick fridge for packs of meat/fish/salad/ready meals that are at their date limit. I often packs of organic minced beef or pork in there.
I believe it was the Victorians who started food labelling and quality rules when it was discovered that a lot of bread flour had brick dust in it or other such lovelies to increase profits for unscrupulous suppliers. The only industrially processed foods I buy are bacon and lardons, tinned beans and corn, tinned sardines for OH and the dogs, tinned tuna for me, chocolate paste for Possum and dog and cat food and wholemal sliced brioche for when I need to do a bread and butter pudding.
The EU - whose staff came proportionately from all over the union, including the UK set up standards for food producton and labelling in order to enable a level trading field for producers and consumers and the single market was a UK idea.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
I only ever buy bagged watercress because you can't get it any other way. Chestnut mushrooms are much harder to judge than the white ones, especially if they're in a plastic covered tray. I only see the white ones loose in Sainsbury's.
Choosing loose veg is fine. The supermarket / grocers are left with the past their best stuff, and should then take responsibility for over ordering stock, or poor storage and handling. Packaged goods like soft fruit, I like to buy the freshest I can to extend its shelf life at home. If it’s going to be short, I expect to pay less, and only buy it if it’ll last until I want to use it. I’ve just eaten a punnet of strawberries that were a week past their best before date, and I’ve no idea when I bought the potatoes as I don’t keep the bags. But I expect the shop to give me the choice as to when I use the produce, not to shift the cost of wastage from their finances to mine by not managing their stock turnover efficiently.
Aaaaah, but they haven't as yet got a robot that looks at dated produce - so to manage the dated stuff, they have to use a HUMAN - yes you read that right, an actual human. And humans cost money and have pension schemes and health issues and..... Nasty, nasty humanses my precious (sorry, been watching the new LOTR prequel - noooooooooooo).
Take the easy option - no machine to manage dated produce? Remove the dates. Hey presto, Bob's your niece, what problem?
I wouldn't buy soft fruit unless I was going to use in within a couple of days whether it had a best before date on it or not. Soft fruit doesn't last long once picked, likewise salad leaves.
I've just returned home to find our recycling box left at the roadside with everything still in it. There is nothing in there that isn't in there every week, and no note of any sort to explain why it was left. End result? Items that are fit for recycling are now in the bin for the tip!
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I've emailed, I've called, I've filled in online forms, but I can't find any one who actually supplies said help.
I believe it was the Victorians who started food labelling and quality rules when it was discovered that a lot of bread flour had brick dust in it or other such lovelies to increase profits for unscrupulous suppliers. The only industrially processed foods I buy are bacon and lardons, tinned beans and corn, tinned sardines for OH and the dogs, tinned tuna for me, chocolate paste for Possum and dog and cat food and wholemal sliced brioche for when I need to do a bread and butter pudding.
The EU - whose staff came proportionately from all over the union, including the UK set up standards for food producton and labelling in order to enable a level trading field for producers and consumers and the single market was a UK idea.
Packaged goods like soft fruit, I like to buy the freshest I can to extend its shelf life at home. If it’s going to be short, I expect to pay less, and only buy it if it’ll last until I want to use it. I’ve just eaten a punnet of strawberries that were a week past their best before date, and I’ve no idea when I bought the potatoes as I don’t keep the bags.
But I expect the shop to give me the choice as to when I use the produce, not to shift the cost of wastage from their finances to mine by not managing their stock turnover efficiently.