Stocking food that’s less & less fresh, blaming it on the consumer’s actions at home and then trying to cut costs whilst saying it’s for the consumer’s benefit. Classic
Seen the state of fresh fruit & veg in store go rapidly downhill the last few years. To the point where I’ll buy the freshest looking stuff left and it’s gone inedible within 2 days
>Asda is scrapping best before dates on hundreds of fruit and vegetable products to help reduce food waste.
It’s not really going to reduce waste though, is it? If the produce is about to go off, it’s going to go off regardless of whether it’s been bought or not. Most produce isn’t eaten in it’s entirety on the day of purchase, which is why people want produce with a longer best before date.
It’s just Asda trying to pass that wasted food cost onto the customers instead.
From the comments:
> An easy way to offload all the about to be moldy stuff
Spot on.
I’ve never paid much attention to dates on fruit and veg in terms of throwing them away, but they are very useful for picking out the stuff that should last as long as I need it to, so this move will mildly inconvenience me.
Why are we listening to giant supermarket views on how to cut back on waste, do we not have a body of government to assess stuff like this and create regulation that those businesses would need to conform to?
Like I’m hoping there’s something out there that tests the best way to keep and store bananas or broccoli in a consumer over profit fashion.
Anyone seeing this as a really cynical marketing strategy to reduce the already poor shelf life of most of their fresh products?
Like others have already said, this is just a way of them to sell you food that’s about to go off. If everything wasn’t wrapped in packaging, you would be able to use your own judgement about how fresh things were, or to avoid individual items that looked bad. But they won’t be doing away with that any time soon!
Think I will just grow my own next year.
Pain in the butt to do. But at least I will have more control of how long it lasts.
And all the use by products they sell will cause food poisoning. Milk isn’t good indefinitely. Neither are fruits and veg. They just know people are buying less stuff these days and they think that people are reluctant to buy things with short shelf lives. They are not removing the dates to stop food wastage but to encourage people to buy these products. How cynical.
*They will be replaced by a code that Asda staff will use to check quality and freshness.*
*Catherine David, director of collaboration and change at Wrap, said: “We are delighted by this development from Asda to help tackle food waste in our homes.*
*”Our research has shown that date labels on fruit and veg are unnecessary – getting rid of them can prevent the equivalent of seven million shopping baskets’ worth from our household bins.”*
****
Yes, unnecessary. That’s why ASDA will still put a BBE date on the produce that only they can read.
In fact what this is all about is taking power away from the public to decide what is fit to it before buying it.
So that means there will be fewer yellow ticketed items, where places like Asda can charge full price…nice.
Based on the rate at which fresh food from Asda goes off these days I’m guessing the best before date was best before it reached the shop.
Remember, this isn’t really being done for the reasons stated, it is so it removes people’s ability to identify the freshest item on a shelf.
No point calling it “fresh fruit and veg” anymore, even before this change, the quality of late is shocking.
Its clear why they are doing this, stuff is rotting in fields and trucks due to brexit before its picked and put on shelves, this is the counter measure – buy out rotting shit.
Can’t even bring back the “wonky carrot” bags and at a cheap price because thats rotting in the fields and on trucks too.
All my homies shop at Aldi
All my homies shop at Aldi
How many people buy fresh fruits and vegetables but do not eat them? A fair few people seem to buy fruit with the intent to snack on it but eat crisps and biscuits instead, while others buy vegetables with the intent on cooking dinner but get a takeaway or ready meal instead. Best before dates are part of the issue but people are just as wasteful with food without them too.
Okay, so put a date in it that tells me when you put it in the bag or when it was picked etc.
Then we’d know if it’s fresh-ish or if it’s going to be goo tomorrow.
They don’t give a f**k about waste, just money.
Can they do this to honey? Saw my partners family throw it in the bin because it went past an arbitrary date. Sealed honey just doesn’t go off.
18 comments
Stocking food that’s less & less fresh, blaming it on the consumer’s actions at home and then trying to cut costs whilst saying it’s for the consumer’s benefit. Classic
Seen the state of fresh fruit & veg in store go rapidly downhill the last few years. To the point where I’ll buy the freshest looking stuff left and it’s gone inedible within 2 days
>Asda is scrapping best before dates on hundreds of fruit and vegetable products to help reduce food waste.
It’s not really going to reduce waste though, is it? If the produce is about to go off, it’s going to go off regardless of whether it’s been bought or not. Most produce isn’t eaten in it’s entirety on the day of purchase, which is why people want produce with a longer best before date.
It’s just Asda trying to pass that wasted food cost onto the customers instead.
From the comments:
> An easy way to offload all the about to be moldy stuff
Spot on.
I’ve never paid much attention to dates on fruit and veg in terms of throwing them away, but they are very useful for picking out the stuff that should last as long as I need it to, so this move will mildly inconvenience me.
Why are we listening to giant supermarket views on how to cut back on waste, do we not have a body of government to assess stuff like this and create regulation that those businesses would need to conform to?
Like I’m hoping there’s something out there that tests the best way to keep and store bananas or broccoli in a consumer over profit fashion.
Anyone seeing this as a really cynical marketing strategy to reduce the already poor shelf life of most of their fresh products?
Like others have already said, this is just a way of them to sell you food that’s about to go off. If everything wasn’t wrapped in packaging, you would be able to use your own judgement about how fresh things were, or to avoid individual items that looked bad. But they won’t be doing away with that any time soon!
Think I will just grow my own next year.
Pain in the butt to do. But at least I will have more control of how long it lasts.
And all the use by products they sell will cause food poisoning. Milk isn’t good indefinitely. Neither are fruits and veg. They just know people are buying less stuff these days and they think that people are reluctant to buy things with short shelf lives. They are not removing the dates to stop food wastage but to encourage people to buy these products. How cynical.
*They will be replaced by a code that Asda staff will use to check quality and freshness.*
*Catherine David, director of collaboration and change at Wrap, said: “We are delighted by this development from Asda to help tackle food waste in our homes.*
*”Our research has shown that date labels on fruit and veg are unnecessary – getting rid of them can prevent the equivalent of seven million shopping baskets’ worth from our household bins.”*
****
Yes, unnecessary. That’s why ASDA will still put a BBE date on the produce that only they can read.
In fact what this is all about is taking power away from the public to decide what is fit to it before buying it.
So that means there will be fewer yellow ticketed items, where places like Asda can charge full price…nice.
Based on the rate at which fresh food from Asda goes off these days I’m guessing the best before date was best before it reached the shop.
Remember, this isn’t really being done for the reasons stated, it is so it removes people’s ability to identify the freshest item on a shelf.
No point calling it “fresh fruit and veg” anymore, even before this change, the quality of late is shocking.
Its clear why they are doing this, stuff is rotting in fields and trucks due to brexit before its picked and put on shelves, this is the counter measure – buy out rotting shit.
Can’t even bring back the “wonky carrot” bags and at a cheap price because thats rotting in the fields and on trucks too.
All my homies shop at Aldi
All my homies shop at Aldi
How many people buy fresh fruits and vegetables but do not eat them? A fair few people seem to buy fruit with the intent to snack on it but eat crisps and biscuits instead, while others buy vegetables with the intent on cooking dinner but get a takeaway or ready meal instead. Best before dates are part of the issue but people are just as wasteful with food without them too.
Okay, so put a date in it that tells me when you put it in the bag or when it was picked etc.
Then we’d know if it’s fresh-ish or if it’s going to be goo tomorrow.
They don’t give a f**k about waste, just money.
Can they do this to honey? Saw my partners family throw it in the bin because it went past an arbitrary date. Sealed honey just doesn’t go off.
Same kind of thing for dried stuff like pasta.