Comment on I bought frozen BBQ eel and the best before date says LJ349. What does this mean?
MrsDoyle@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
Some uk supermarkets have started dropping the use by date in favour of codes like this. www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45786012 The article says it’s to reduce waste and that staff will have special training to know when to bin stuff. I imagine the training is in how to read the codes.
Fresh produce has it here in there Netherlands as well. Or our supermarket has for the last few years, a letter specifies the day of the week (Monday = A) and then the week number.
Week number we printed on the sticker machines and stuck on the start of every isle just to make it easier.
Genius!
trolololol@lemmy.world 8 months ago
What duck heads
Should I call customer support every time I’m about to cook dinner?
Cethin@lemmy.zip 8 months ago
I assume the point is the “best before” dates are mostly useless. They’re useful for the store, but for a customer usually you should tell by smelling and looking at it. We evolved with senses to tell us when food has gone bad. Those dates aren’t part of it. So much food is wasted because people think those are magic and should be obayed like a law.
Naich@lemmings.world 8 months ago
That’s great unless you have an impaired sense of smell, like I had for the last 2 weeks following a COVID infection, or other people have permanently.
T00l_shed@lemmy.world 8 months ago
On the flip side, knowing the rough best before date helps people buy the freshest stuff, since I can’t open the cream with a date that says jr402 I won’t know if it should be good for a week or a month.
Cethin@lemmy.zip 8 months ago
That’s the point. People will choose to buy the “freshest” stuff, meaning it created a lot of waste. If you can’t tell what freshest then it will prevent older stuff from needing to be thrown out. If it’s being sold at the store, it’s fine.