Chris Marshall: Will binning sell by dates open the door to poisoning?

Published on Tuesday 16 June 2009 09:49

IN the days before use by dates we all had to make do with a rather more basic way of checking our food – giving it a good sniff before popping it in our mouths.

With the government now considering moves to scrap some forms of food labelling, it seems we are once again to be trusted not to poison ourselves.

Flippant though that may sound, there are some for whom the debate around sell-by dates can stir up some rather heated views.

Indeed, TV cook Clarissa Dickson Wright – perhaps not known for mincing her words – has referred to "best before" labels and their like as a "marketing scam", designed to encourage us to throw away food that is still fit for consumption.

The remaining half of the Two Fat Ladies, Dickson Wright said one of her favourite ways of brightening up a dinner party was to announce to guests that they had just enjoyed a meal composed of food past its use by dates and watching their faces fall.

Jokes aside, Dickson Wright's after-dinner wheeze illustrates our attitude to sell by and best before dates, an attitude that sees every family in the UK throw out an average of 400 of perfectly good food every year.

Opinion is divided over how useful sell by and display until dates – first introduced by Marks & Spencer in 1970 – actually are.

Environment Minister Hilary Benn says they are intended as a mark of quality, but are often mistaken for a safety warning. "When we buy food, it should be easy to know how long we should keep it for and how we should store it," he says.

"Too many of us are putting things in the bin because we're not sure. We're confused by the label, or we're just playing safe.

"This means we're throwing away thousands of tonnes of food every year completely unnecessarily."

The government says that as part of its "war on waste" it will look to improve labels so that consumers know exactly for how long something is safe to eat.

But with repeated warnings over food hygiene, is scrapping best by dates safe?

Dickson Wright's comments angered Andrew Wadge, the Food Standards Agency's chief scientist, who reportedly accused the food writer of talking "absolute rubbish."

He said: "If food is past its use by date, it could end up making you seriously ill or worse. Smelling food isn't enough. You can't smell salmonella, E coli and listeria – all potential killers."

Dr Fred Pender, a nutritionist at Edinburgh University, says: "There's no doubt the public still need to be guided, but the argument that use by dates are used by manufacturers to encourage people to throw things out is probably quite justified.

"There are people who follow the dates religiously, but foods like cheese and yoghurt are already full of bacteria. Another few days probably won't make a difference."

Anyone who has ever suffered the indignity of food poisoning will know how wretched the experience can be, and it is often the very young and the elderly that are most vulnerable.

This week the FSA launches a campaign that seeks to educate over-60s about the potentially deadly repercussions of failing to heed food safety messages.

Central to the message is the importance of use by dates, with experts advising the public to throw out anything that has exceeded its date.

It is claimed that about 6.7 million tonnes of food is thrown away in the UK every year, most of which could still be eaten.

Every day five million potatoes, four million apples and one million loaves of bread are discarded that could still safely be consumed.

But it is not just consumers that are to blame. An investigation by the Evening News last year found that the Capital's supermarkets are guilty of throwing away perfectly healthy items.

The binning of items still good to eat has now inspired a "freeganism" movement where budget-conscious consumers carry out night-time raids, living off the food that others throw away.

One problem is that many of us do not know how best to store food, often labouring under the misapprehension that simply putting everything in the fridge is the best way of ensuring longevity.

How many of us know, for example, that the best place to store tomatoes is on the kitchen counter at room temperature, or that many other fruits are best kept in the fridge, not the fruit bowl?

And while there is confusion about how best to store some foods, there is also confusion about the guidelines themselves, with both sell by and use by dates coming in for criticism.

However, despite an apparent willingness to do away with the labelling, such a move may not be altogether easy.

According to the FSA, best before and use by dates are still required under European law.

It is likely that any changes would simply seek to clarify the food labelling system for consumers, while at the same time minimising the amount of food wasted.

The Scottish Grocers' Federation says that while backing a simplification of the current labelling system, it does not support scrapping the guidelines altogether.

"We would welcome a review," spokeswoman Katie Mackie says. "But we are in favour of one clear, definitive use by date, which would make it easier to remove any doubt."

But while the debate continues about how useful food labels are, the dangers of ignoring food safety messages remain clear.

It seems the use by may not have reached its use by date just yet.