Shops selling out of date food

[Yai]

Is it illegal for shops to sell food which is past it's 'best before' date and hasn't been clearly marked as being out of date ? There's a shop near me which has been selling some out of date food for ages now, every time I check the date on the product it's always about one month past it's best before. I'd like to point it out to them but want to know if it's legal or not to be selling them first.

[bobbobley]

yes, it is illegal and if this is a regular occurence then it is your duty to report the offending shop to the authorities. its not only illegal, but irresponsible and dangerous.

[bobbobley]

sorry, I should add that there is a difference between "Best before" and "Use by" dates; the former is a guide and its not illegal to display these goods after the date concerned. It is however illegal to display goods for sale in the latter category.

[BadBob]

Yep bobbobley is correct. Its perfectly legal to sell best before dated food after the date shown. The date is simply advice that the product will be in a good condition before this date. However Used By is for short perishable foods such as meats and fresh produce etc. In the 80's there were a number of shops which just sold goods which were out of Best Before date or very close too. Major supermarkets tend not to simply for image reasons.

[Bert]

I just answered this, but got a message that my answer was over 2000 characters. Couldn't you just take the first 2000 characters so I hadn't completely wasted my time?

Bobbobley was right at his second attempt, but there was a lot more that I could have added. For a complete and thorough answer ask a Trading Standards Officer (especially Peterborough, which is where I work)

[Bert - sorry your lengthy answer was lost. - AB Editor]

[GMH]

It should definitely be illegal, if it already isn't. Only last year the London Evening Standard reported that Tesco had been fined for selling out if date food at one of its branches. Mouldy apple turnovers etc. Private Eye had published a picture of a branch of Tesco with the newspaper on sale and on the front page was the headline that the supermarket had been fined for selling the inedible food.

However, I remember hearing on a radio station bulletin back in 1994 a story that a shopkeeper had been fined for selling a sage and onion stuffing mix to a customer. OK, nothing wrong there, except that the product was dated from 1969, presumably long before Best Before dates had been sued. It was so old that Paxo even wanted it for their archive. It only rang alarm bells when the customer noticed the pre decimal price on the packet and the very dated packaging.