Hacker News Reader

Comment by droithomme | Hacker News Reader

The best thing about these dates is fancy high end stuff gets tossed in the discount bin for 50-75% off when that date is imminent.

And based on my experience, yeah, it's not "best" at that time, but it's still edible, not so bad, and maybe even pretty ok compared to fresh cheap stuff filled with artificial flavors.

View on HN

There are very few things that start to rot near or even well after a "best before" date (ie: the point of the article/regulations). Vegetables are the worst "mental" group; there's no health/safety issue involved, just the change to a slimy texture that turns people off. Fruit goes soft, but takes 1-2 weeks past its date to become undesirable - and by then, it's obvious that there is rot or mold. Bread is fine until you can smell or taste mold, no date checking required. Unprocessed meat and dairy products are really the only ones to be concerned about. Nearly every other product is just a matter of freshness - a subjective perceived metric of quality more than anything else.

Really, just try smelling and then tasting it. By and large, our noses and tastebuds are amazing natural filters. If it isn't so revolting that you need to gasp for air or spit it out, you're probably safe. So very few products actually "go bad" to the point of being dangerous to consume.

I'm curious to see just how clear-cut the "use by" label will be. I suspect that even with these changes, such a label will continue to be abused to label things as "unsafe" long before it is really the case. The industry desire to have you throw out perfectly good product (and buy more to replace it) is far too strong for regulation to make a difference. I wouldn't be surprised if they start adding dairy (or some unstable chemical) to products that don't normally contain such things, in order to get away with marking their product as having a shorter shelf life than required.

Ive seen this in the UK Aus and NZ but never in the US. I wonder if it is because US stores stick to a perhaps rational strategy where discounted items cannibalize profits?

In the US we have discount "grocery stores" in lower income neighborhoods that pretty much exclusively sell stuff that is past or very close to it's best by date. I agree it's less common to see a discount bin in a normal grocery store, but if you're in a more working class neighborhood you might find a rack that has stuff that they're not longer stocking, old bread, or dented boxes and cans.

In the US (at least in some states) there are discount grocery stores that buy truckloads of expired products from the major retailers and sell them off cheap. Tend to exist in lower income areas.

Some of the stuff is years out of date. A surprising percentage of people don't even look at the date.

It's in the US too however it's in lower cost areas. For example, a small rural town in Wisconsin has a bargain store that often gets these kinds of items from Costco and major markets like NYC and Chicago (it's obvious by the ethnic grocery items). Obviously, one small store isn't enough to sell it all so there must be quite a few of these spread out over the country in lower cost of living areas where rent is cheap for low margin small retail.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com