• This article discusses issues related to food safety in colloquial terms. For official advice, and a more detailed explanation of the important difference between use-by and best-before dates, please visit the Food Standards Agency’s advice page.
The prosecution: Yara
Marcus says use-by dates are just a scam. But why play Russian roulette with our health?
My partner Marcus has a habit I find really gross. He never pays any attention to food labels and often eats food that’s way past its expiry date. I think it’s terrible for him.
Marcus is thrifty in general, but during lockdown he became particularly obsessed with saving money and reducing food waste. He’s into apps that help you collect leftover or almost expiring food from supermarkets and restaurants.
I thought it was a good idea at first. In general, there’s nothing wrong with the food that is about to be disposed of, and it also saves money. But when you end up eating really old produce, I think it gets dangerous.
Marcus also often collects more food than we need. He doesn’t always freeze it, so we have pork pies, chicken sandwiches, eggs and vegetables sitting in our fridge that we can’t eat all at once. He will tell me it’s fine to eat later in the week, but I find the idea of eating spoiled meat nauseating. We have a toddler, Rosie, and I certainly don’t want to risk her getting sick, so I put my foot down.
Once food has gone off, it should be disposed of, simple as that. Marcus tells me use-by dates are just a scam and food is often fine to eat days afterwards, but why play Russian roulette with our health? One time, when I refused to eat chicken drumsticks that were four days out of date, Marcus said I was being wasteful. But it’s not that – I’d just rather not get food poisoning.
I also think he could leave some of the food we don’t need in the shops for other people. He sees a bargain and totally loses his head. He can’t resist taking everything that’s available.
Marcus has always done most of the cooking for us and he’s very good at throwing delicious meals together, but now when I see that he’s trying to cook meals with produce long past the expiry date. I go around analysing labels and sniffing everything before he starts cooking.
I can deal with eating old vegetables and sometimes bread, but when it comes to meat and dairy, I won’t budge. Call me wasteful, or spoilt, I don’t care.
The defence: Marcus
I’ve eaten chicken, eggs and bread that were days past the date on the pack. It’s fine and saves money
Yara has got a bee in her bonnet about food labelling, but I don’t think she has a very good understanding of what is safe to eat. A few times when I’ve shown her food that is past its expiry date, she’s said – without even looking at or smelling it – “That’s disgusting, we aren’t eating that.”
But best-before dates are only indicative of when food or drink will start to change – they have nothing to do with safety. Food past its best-before dates is still fine to eat, and legally shops can still sell it. I grab a lot of stuff past its best-by date to save money for our family, and I’ll cook with ingredients past their use-by date.
I also love using food waste apps like Too Good To Go and Olio as well as other supermarket apps. It helps us save and the food still tastes great. I got into it during the summer of 2021, when everyone started eating out again between lockdowns. But it took Yara a while to come around to consuming stuff that had expired. She is fine with vegetables, but with everything else she is really picky.
If a product is past its use-by date, people say, “Oh you shouldn’t touch it”, especially if it’s meat, but I’ve eaten chicken, eggs and bread that were days past this date. They were fine and I’m still here to tell the tale. As long as it’s been refrigerated and it’s not weeks gone, then I’ll risk it.
I had been cooking with a lot of meat that had passed its use-by date but then, a few months ago, Yara read an article about bacteria and cooking and banned me from using it. I’m allowed to freeze and defrost meat that is just before its use-by date, but she won’t eat anything meat or dairy-based that’s expired. I think it’s a bit over the top.
Of course I don’t want to make Rosie, our child, sick. I never take it too far and always test it out. I have never cooked with food that is visibly off. However, as I do most of the cooking, I’m the one buying and sourcing all of our food. If Yara has strong views, perhaps she should get a bit more involved. Then she can really express opinions about the ingredients we consume.
The jury of Guardian readers
Should Marcus stop buying food past its use-by date?
Reducing food waste is great but Marcus is taking it too far, and him doing most of the cooking doesn’t justify risking food poisoning. Yara seems open to compromise on vegetables, so Marcus should avoid expired meat and dairy – and stop buying discounted food they don’t actually need.
Ruth, 30
Marcus’s efforts to eliminate food waste are admirable and maximises food efficiency for the family. He’s not taking undue risks and he is saving money, which in these times is important.
Tim, 41
I agree that best-before dates are only advisory and should be taken with a pinch of preservative. However, eating food past its use-by date is risky. Yara doesn’t want to take that risk, and Rosie can’t make that decision yet – it’s unfair of Marcus to impose his agenda on them.
Mike, 32
Use-by dates are for safety, and food poisoning can kill. Meat and fish don’t necessarily show or smell when they’re already off. Buy only what you can safely eat or freeze before the use-by date. Follow the science, please!
Victoria, 72
We live in an wasteful society and using common sense to determine whether food is OK to eat is a better approach than punctiliously following the dates on labels. However, “risking it” doesn’t sound like a good approach to cooking meat..
Lewis, 33
Now you be the judge
In our online poll below, tell us: should Marcus stop buying food past its use-by date?
The poll will close on Thursday 17th November 10am GMT
Last week’s result
We asked whether Leo should decide on where he and his sister Isabelle buy a house together.
94% of you said no – Leo is guilty
6% of you said yes – Leo is not guilty
• This article was amended on 11 November 2022. An earlier version referred several times to “sell-by” dates when it meant to refer to use-by dates. Also, text was added to provide a link to the Food Standards Agency’s official advice page.
