Co-op to sell food past "best before" for 10p

I volunteer at a Food Bank which is run by my sister and her husband. Every week there are items which are past their sell-by date. They are in the donations- recently we had half a jar of Marmite! We cannot give them out officially- think of the risks- illness, bad publicity, compensation claims. We put all items in a container in the cafe area for clients to help themselves, making it clear that it is extra to their food package, and is at their own risk. It always goes.

A bigger issue is fresh food. We have no storage facilities for fresh food, and the regulations we have to adhere to are very strict. I find this frustrating.

We have a Co-op at the end of the road and I always make a beeline for the reduced shelf. Recently bought some satsumas at half price. Took them to DDs as I like them with my breakfast. One morning realised there was only one satsuma left-she said they looked wrinkly so she'd thrown them away! So I had to fish them out of the bin, run under hot water tap and just finishing them off now! So I will defo be buying 10p items.

Wouldn't it be more sensible all round to put a Made On date so we can all make up our own minds?

I bet you any money you like there will be a myriad of regulations that will prevent them donating this stock to Food Banks.

It's not about getting a "bargain", hopefully it will help people whose budgets are tight.

I haven't read all the way down this thread, so sorry if someone has already said this.
The co-op is losing profits by this selling, and as a co-operative that means all the customers. 'Best Before' is purely advisory, (and should be taken off the label). ' Use By' is mandatory for health & safety.
Selling perfectly good food for such a little price is bad business. I would feel a lot better if they gave it to food banks, not just for people like me to get a bargain.

Also..... I had a colleague who used to worked in an egg-packing plant.... she told me some of them were three weeks old before they were crated up. Makes you think doesn't it that supermarkets just want to frighten people into buying more food than is necessary. Or is that government!!

Ive worked for a massive supermarket chain for 21 years. The waste was/ is astronomical. Rather bin it than even sell to staff at day's end. I've always eaten out-of-dates.. How d'you think our mothers and grandmothers managed without 'dates' on everything. When did we get so feeble minded as to not trust our own judgement. .. smell it...look at it.... feel it.... taste it.... if it's ok it's OK!! My mum and dad brought up six kids without a fridge or a 'date' anywhere in sight...mum lived to 91... And all of us kids are still bouncing around reasonably healthy with ages ranging from me the baby of them all 67 to 78. Trust yourselves.... If its'off' you'll know it!

We have eyes to see, noses to smell and tongues to taste. Who needs sell by dates, best before dates or any other dates? All we need is old-fashioned common sense

Yes, Maggieanne, I remember the butter mountain well. I had four weeks between my Summer job ending and my college course starting and my mother heard that I could claim benefits. After much form filling and attending every week, I got four weeks' worth of butter vouchers.

I volunteer at a lunch club where we get stuff past its sell by date from Tesco through Fareshare. It's nearly all bread and pastries - the number of croissants is breathtaking - so we can't use it for lunch but the oldies happily take most of it home with no ill effects.

Does anyone remember the wine, butter, milk and all other foodstuff mountains in the EU. All destroyed, because of "The rules"! Disgusting. These people that make rules have no common sense when it comes to real life. All supermarkets reduce their out of date stuff, worth getting if you can use it.

I take little notice of dates on food except dairy & meat. Brought up with the mantra "look at it, smell it & taste it" if it's ok then eat it.

I shop in Co-op regularly, I don't find them expensive on most items & I always check the short-life shelf, box of plums today 60p instead of £1.

All I can say is good on Co-op for this initiative

We always shop at our local Tesco on Sunday afternoon when all perishable goods and chilled foods with that day's date are reduced to a quarter of the original price (or sometimes 10% if they've got a lot to get rid of). Ready meals etc go straight in the freezer and we eat the fruit and veg over the following week. Sometimes we buy things like plums which have that day's date on them and have to wait two weeks for them to be ripe enough to eat.

It would be interesting to hear from someone who runs a food bank, re the comments about not accepting food labelled as out of date.

Jalima1108. I fear you are right about potential complainers: ‘do-gooders’ who always play the human rights card in an argument. As you say, sad but true.

There would be umpteen complaints then oldandbold and Jane43 that those in poverty were being fobbed off with food that other people would refuse to eat whereas those not in need of a food bank may be quite happy to buy on-date goods at knock-down prices.
Sad but true

The complaints would probably not come from people who use the foodbanks, but by others on their behalf

Still full marks to the co-op!

Yes I agree with holdingontomyteeth and Jane43,and wonder why the ‘best before’ goods don’t go to a food bank. I can understand that the ‘use by ‘ perishables may be more problematic for food banks.

I ate some tinned herrings last week, best before 2003. Very tasty. When fish is 'off', it makes it very clear!

Mamacaz
A more logical solution being not to charge so much for the item in the first place than having to end up reducing it, and in many instances, by less than half the original price
I make my own tomato sauce so always looking for a bargain. Recently while shopping I had observed packs of toms for 90p.A bit pricy, they were a little above average in size, but only 4 in a pack so did not buy.Glad I waited as several days later back in the same store, maybe due to lack of interest or no doubt the price, I obtained what were 90p a pack of toms now priced at 40p a pack.
I am sure had these items originally been priced at 60p not 90p I would and possibly others have purchased them at that price.

A very sensible idea - only the Co-op would come up with this.

1moleta3

I use out of date food tegularly (except fresh meat & dairy. Never had any problems. I think its excellent if supermarkets can use up perfectly good food in this way. Throwing it out when people are short of food seems obscene!

The easy and obvious way to cut down waste is to stop selling multi buys of perishable food.
This is particular bee in my bonnet, and I cannot understand why none of the supermarkets have tried this. It would work with me. I'm often put off buying this because I don't want two, but can't bring myself to pay over the odds for the one I would buy!

Who suffers the 'fridge police' when family members come to visit?
One member who was dreadful when he was younger and lived at home now needs fridge police of his own - has realised that things are not always as they seem.
I knew a butcher who told me he always kept steak up until it went black before he cooked and ate it!
I think it is a good idea to be selling these items which are deemed out of date cheaply - that will hopefully help many families. Maybe the last day of things such as sandwiches could be given for distribution to the homeless - most places have a local team doing their best for these poor people.