MORE ON FOOD WASTE

I have found out a lot more about "use by" dates, plus other aspects of food safety legislation - which is separate from health and safety legislation. As I suspected, a large proportion of the food that people regularly throw away is fit to eat.

"Use by" date labels are the only labels that are legally binding: it is an offence to sell items once that date has passed. "Use by" date labels are required on processed items that are highly perishable and require refrigeration. Using these foods after the "use by" date could put your health at risk.

Other food items have a longer shelf life, and will not support dangerous bacterial growth, though their quality will deteriorate over time. These items should have "best before" date labels, after which it is usual, but not legally required, to reduce their price. Almost all items which are past their "best before" date are perfectly good to eat, provided that they have been stored according to the instructions on the label. Eventually these items may lose their flavour, or become a bit dry, but they will not hurt you. The one exception is fresh eggs, as there is a risk of salmonella poisoning from uncooked eggs past this date.

"Display until" dates, which replaced "sell by" dates in 1995, are used by shops for stock control. Neither have anything to do with food safety; the "use by" and "best before" dates are the ones we need to check.

Please check this out on the Food Standards Agency website. This also states "About a third of the food we buy ends up being thrown away and most of this could have been eaten. So think carefully before throwing away food that is past its 'best before' date."

I am still trying to find out how much food is thrown away by shops before we buy it, but I have failed to get reliable information about this. I was told by a customer relations person from the supermarket mentioned in my last posting, that no food past the "use by" and "best before" dates is destroyed, it is all given to a charity for immediate consumption. I told him that my experience in Moseley contradicted this. I have now found out that a Birmingham charity does collect food each day from larger Birmingham supermarkets, along with other items such as flowers.

Both major supermarkets in Moseley have confirmed that out of date food is destroyed. If anyone could give me details, in the "comments" spot, of a charity in or near Moseley that would make good use of food that is out of date, but perfectly good, I will try to make this happen.