My local supermarket (Asda) is very good at dating food, and reducing the price of meat close to it's sell by date - but, I think the quality of most of the meat is very poor. We tend not to buy, preferring to eat less meat and pay more to buy better quality from a local butcher or the farmers market. There's also the quality of life of the animals to be considered, and we just have to accept that free range costs more.