Grow Your Own Magazine

I am currently in the process of ranting at my local supermarket - the topic of this exchange of views is over the short-shelf life of their produce - namely meat etc... I purchased a free-range chook from them one Thurs afternoon and popped it into my fridge, expecting to be able to eat it for Sunday Lunch (3 days later) When I took it out of the fridge, I opened the packaging and it was a little whiffy... when I checked the use by date I found it was thursday I purchased it!

This was annoying, especially as I paid full price for it (and the fact that I had my Mother in Law with us for lunch and with me when I found out it was off) - but what peed me off completely was the fact that the 'sell-by date' and the 'use-by date' were one and the same ! And having looked at other meat products I found that both were the same again!!!

I have complained to the retailer in question and had a very corporate reponse telling me how***** valued my opinion and hope that I enjoy shopping with them, BUT that food retailers are allowed to sell the product at full price until close of the use-by date.

I have informed them that whilst they may be allowed to do so it is poor practise and not acceptable to the consumer ie ME! But also that they missed the point of my complaint which is the lack of difference between sell-by and use-by dates - I will be buying local produce from now and andnot be using their services for anything but necessities from here on !! RANT OVER

Has anyone else noticed this ??

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How can a woman be expected to be happy with a man who insists on treating her as if she were a perfectly normal human being.”

I must admit Sunbeam I haven't but I've not looked. Bought some chicken pieces to freeze from a national chain which were well in date. Opened packet and nearly keeled over. They gave me my money back without question - customer service girl didn't need to get too close to make that decision. Apparently due to a small hole in the packaging which was too small to see!!!

Though with the current furough over imported eggs and some of the exposes about the meat industry it does make one think twice.

You are doing the right thing sunbeam by voting with your feet. Appalling example of capitalism and greed at its worst.

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Bright Blessings
Earthbabe
If at first you don't succeed, open a bottle of wine.

Don't shop in the supermarket unless I really have to as am fed up with the pathetic choice of anything I'd acually want to buy. If I do then have always checked sell by dates pretty carefully am have been amazed over time how often they're selling stuff over date - make a point of letting them know and have almost always been greated by a total lack of indifference. Seems that Sunbeams supermaket is trying to ensure that they can keep produce on the shelf as long as they can without having to reduce it. Mind you, the best I remember seeing is a single day difference between the sell by and use by dates on meat which isn't much more. Lesson learnt for the future I suppose.

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Some of us live in the past, always talking about back then. Some of us live in the future, always planning what we are going to do. And, then there are those, who neither look behind or ahead, but just enjoy the moment of right now.

Which one are you and is it how you want to be?

It must be a c*** supermarket you use my wife is a stock controller at the No.3 supermarket and she reduces the next days date. But why wait to purchase meat at the last moment or is it to just get it cheap
I used to work on the meat counter and was supervisor on the deli and I used to get really p****d off with customers demanding, yes, demanding reductions near the close of business

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You are never too old to learn

We do shop at the supermarkets, mainly for dunny rolls and the like but do buy fruit that we cannot grow from them and other odd veggies. We never however buy meat from them. We have a superb butcher 100 yards away and people come from surrounding villages to use him.

The reason for this is solely on the quality of his meat. His beef for example is hung for at leat 4 weeks, the lamb comes from the next village and all of his poultry is free range. I may be fortunate with having this butcher but why would you want to buy vac packed "chicken" thats probably been imported from Spain along with their dodgy eggs.

Support your local butcher and buy real meat with some provenance.

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Kindest regards, David.

http://pigletsplots.blogspot.com/
updated lots - Sunday 28th at 1640hrs

Well said! Piglet

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You are never too old to learn

Another vote for real local food here. It tastes so much better than that underhung supermarket flabby stuff. I find supermarket meat dry and tough too.
My local Butcher sells local organic Pork (tucking into one of these chops makes you realise supermarket pork is like cardboard), Free range chickens, Lamb from the next county and beef which is well hung and tender, It costs no more ( or very little) than supermarket meat either.

I can honestly say I have never really looked at dates on food unless its in the reduced section, going to now though and check that the packaging isn't damaged.
Ideally I would only go to a butcher thats a few miles away because his meat is lovely and the service is wonderful. I'm an infrequent visitor to his shop, but he always says hello and lets me have bones for the dog.
I agree that most supermarket meat is pricey for what you actually get, but my budget can be pretty tight at times and I have to make it stretch as far as I can (hence decision to start growing my own as much as possible).
Perhaps the money saved on supermarket veggies can go towards better meat

Kirsty

The other advantage of getting a relationship going with your local butcher (no Nick I didn't mean like that!) is that they should be able to advise you on how to get the best out of a particular cut of meat. Also, with better quality meat and usually a better selection from the butchers you can make some great meals out of the cheaper cuts - particularly at this time of year when a good casserole or stew goes down a treat.

However as said in one of the above posts the quality of butchers does vary considerably and there are plenty about who are actually worse than the supermarkets! Best to look about and do the best you can in your area.

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Some of us live in the past, always talking about back then. Some of us live in the future, always planning what we are going to do. And, then there are those, who neither look behind or ahead, but just enjoy the moment of right now.

Which one are you and is it how you want to be?

I agree with you Alison with regard to utilising the cheaper cuts. It seems to be a thing of the past slow cooking cheaper cuts but in reality they are the tastiest ones.

If anyone saw Heston Blumenthal's steak programme the other day, all of the chefs regard fillet steak (the most expensive) as boring to cook and tasteless. He used a forerib of beef which is a cut we always use if roasting beef as I feel its the best tasting. I am going to try using it for steaks as well as it is wonderfully marbled. A bonus is that its much cheaper than fillet.

Try slow cooked stewing steak (left as steaks) cooked with shallots, mushrooms and the holy trinity of veg. Cheap and wonderfully tasty.

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Kindest regards, David.

http://pigletsplots.blogspot.com/
updated lots - Sunday 28th at 1640hrs

I think what sometimes happens is a potential buyer picks up chicken/meat from the chiller section and for whatever reason decides they don't want it and put it down on another shelf! Storekeeper comes along, sees item is out of chiller and puts it back! It could have been lying there all day in a hot shop and when someone buys it it has already started to rot (even though it is still in date) before they get it home!

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

Good point, Snadger, hadn't thought of that. Something else which annoys me, how hard is it to at least put chilled / frozed projects back in the fridge / freezer even if it's not in the right place!

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Some of us live in the past, always talking about back then. Some of us live in the future, always planning what we are going to do. And, then there are those, who neither look behind or ahead, but just enjoy the moment of right now.

Which one are you and is it how you want to be?

I didn't buy it last minute to get it cheap - I bought it to eat three days later - ie i expected it to be well within it's use-by date ... which is why I was so angry... as for being a crap supermarket, they certainly can afford the services of Jamie Oliver, so they can't be doing too bad!

As for supporting my local butcher - I do when I am in town, unfortunately the nearest decent butchers, that isn't part of a knock it off cheap & in bulk brigade, is over 10 miles away...my supermarket is 2 miles away..hence they tend to get alot of my business...

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How can a woman be expected to be happy with a man who insists on treating her as if she were a perfectly normal human being.”

I suggest you start checking the dates asap - my local supermarket is your local store too!! thanks for the pm re butchers - I had forgotton that one was there & tend to go over to Saffron Walden when we get the chance!!

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How can a woman be expected to be happy with a man who insists on treating her as if she were a perfectly normal human being.”

Apparantly Tescos policy is that anything they find has been dumped in that way is not put back on sale but they can have breakdowns in the overall chill 'chain'
I just hate the poor quality of their meat anyway unless it's their 'finest or quality' ranges which costs lots anyway.

My nearest butcher is three doors down although his shop is in Alresford. His meat is superb but unfortunately like kirsty b our budget doesn't always stretch to is. If we want a nice steak we buy his as he stocks orkney gold. His cheaper cuts are superb and he can occasionally get mutton. The only time we do a pork roast is if we can get organic from the farmer's market as the supermarket stuff is revolting.

The aim of GYO for us is to be able to grow enough veggies and fruit to allow us to buy better meat. We are making slow progress but we will get there.

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Bright Blessings
Earthbabe
If at first you don't succeed, open a bottle of wine.

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.

Thought that one of the things which HFW said in his recent programme was interesting ie that it shouldn't be possible to produce food as cheap as some of the stuff in the supermarkets (think he was looking for BOGOF chooks at the time) as to do this you'd have to sacrifice animal conditions and quality of product. He's right really but it's difficult unless your well off. Read in a different survey though that although house prices etc have gone through the roof, we now spend far less of our money (as a percentage) each week on food. Thought it was interesting.

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Some of us live in the past, always talking about back then. Some of us live in the future, always planning what we are going to do. And, then there are those, who neither look behind or ahead, but just enjoy the moment of right now.

Which one are you and is it how you want to be?

There's no reason why the supermarket should reduce their prices on the last day of shelf life. Caveat emptor in this case. Display until (or sell by) dates have no legal standing - just depends on how confident the shop is of selling the stuff by the use by date.

I lecture on food safety & I'm often surprised by the number of people who don't know what is meant by a use-by date or by a best before date and which is safe to eat (and legal to buy) after the date has expired. Best before dates are for products which are safe to eat past this date, but the quality of which may be reduced (e.g. tins, dried goods, biscuits etc). It is not illegal to sell food past its best before date. Use-by dates are found on 'high risk' foods on which food poisoning bacteria can potentially grow. It is unsafe to consume food past its use-by date, as bacteria may grow to unsafe levels after this time. It is also illegal to sell food past its use-by date. Almost all foods must have one or the other of these foods (there are a few exceptions). There is no requirement for a 'display until' or 'sell by' - these are for solely for the convenience of the shop.
Obviously, as Earthbabe comments, this relies on the packaging, chill chain etc being intact.

We do buy our meat from our local butcher, but it's definitely quite a lot more expensive than the supermarket.

Sorry - I'll shut up now

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http://inelegantgardener.blogspot.com
Updated 13th September

I'd rather eat cheaper cuts of good meat and much smaller portions of the more expensive ones.
My butchers gorgeous organic pork chops are definitelty more expensive than the supermarket but the belly slices are lean, delicious and very reasonable. His stewing beef is cheap but really tender.Lamb and beef mince is cheaper than the best supermarket steak mince but of comparable quality. Free range chickens are about £4.00 each so not as cheap as the cheapest supermarket chicken but those are absolutely 'fowl'

Before I discovered him I used another good Butcher just across the road but they are much more expensive so I always got these cheaper cuts.
If you've got a good butcher you have to travel to I think it's worth bulk buying and freezing for convenience. It still beats supermarket stuff even when it's been frozen I reckon.