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I’ve ended up with expired food from physical stores many times in my life. It’s not really a big deal, you just return it or eat it depending on the product.
by donatj 7y ago
I’ve ended up with expired food from physical stores many times in my life. It’s not really a big deal, you just return it or eat it depending on the product.
Same here. It happens. It’s harmless.
If it’s a big deal to you, go to the store and pick things out yourself.
- goda90 7y agoYou can look at what you're buying from the store before you buy it.
- grenoire 7y agoAt a physical store you can check in advance if the expiration date has passed or not. You don't get the option to confirm it when you order online, however.
- mrweasel 7y agoThat's honestly the reason for me not buying groceries online, well that and shipping cost. Given the cost of shipping, I'd do one order a week at the most, but the I risk getting 5L of milk which expires within three days. If I only order once a week, then that is the minimum expiry date I'll accept on perishable food items. I don't blame the companies for wanting to ship the items that are about to expire, but please apply some common sense. If the amount is more than an average family could reasonable consume within a week, then may mix the items in with other with later expiration date.
- rambojazz 7y agoThat should not happen at all.
- donatj 7y agoWhy? Expired food is generally perfectly safe. The dates are quality indicators, not safety indicators. It’s just being wasteful. https://www.consumerreports.org/food-safety/how-to-tell-whether-expired-food-is-safe-to-eat/ https://www.consumerreports.org/food-safety/how-to-tell-whet...
- philjohn 7y agoExcept when it comes to baby formula, whilst it might be safe to consume, the various nutrients required by a growing baby start to degrade past the use by date so you run the risk of introducing defficiencies.
- maxerickson 7y agoIt isn't necessarily even that the ingredients start to degrade, it's just the date the manufacturer promises that the label will be correct until. https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/fda-takes-final-step-infant-formula-protections https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/fda-takes-fin... (I get that this is a small distinction, but they likely aren't doing all that much work to extend the shelf life, they don't need to)
- thrower123 7y agoBaby formula in general is probably best not consumed, if there is any way around it. In the best cases it's not great, and there are so many horror stories of it being adulterated with garbage.
- philjohn 7y agoIndeed - breast is best, but having two children, one of whom had awful reflux and just could not breast feed, and another who was fine there are good reasons that baby formula exists.
- PeterisP 7y agoIt happens, but it's a punishable violation - the appropriate response is not "just return it or eat it" but an audit of the whole store and fines for having expired produce on their shelves, which is not acceptable. A physical store that does not have a reasonable process to ensure that expired goods are not available for sale is not qualified to operate safely, if it does it repeatedly, then it should be shut down - it's like a restaurant with rats running around.
- donatj 7y agoIn the United States at least expiration dates have no relation to food safety. Also the majority of expirations other than “Use by” are non binding https://consumerist.com/2008/06/18/is-it-legal-to-sell-expired-food/ https://consumerist.com/2008/06/18/is-it-legal-to-sell-expir...
- PeterisP 7y agoOkay, that may be a substantial regulatory difference, in Europe it's generally not legal to sell expired food. (And to illustrate divergence, that consumerist article isn't available for EU users.)
- rietta 7y agoI am not an expert in this, but I am aware from direct knowledge of businesses that collect recently expired foods (that are not yet spoiled - such as frozen) from grocery stores and transfers them to legal charities and food banks. There is a delta between sale by and unfit for human consumption.
- Merrill 7y agohttps://www.stilltasty.com/ https://www.stilltasty.com/
- excalibur 7y agoI know at least one store that uses this as a business model. Food past its sell-by date can be acquired from grocers for little to nothing and resold at insanely cheap prices. The difficulty is in making sure your customers know what they're signing up for without loudly proclaiming that you're selling expired food.