A former staff member at Tesco has claimed that the store's fruit and veg bags have "secret codes" on them that shoppers may not know about. Shoppers may be able to work out how fresh the produce is understand how the code works.
The ex-employee posted on TikTok under the name @financegirlbargains to share what she learned in staff training at the supermarket. Shoppers were excited to learn what the codes mean, the Daily Record reports.
Using two packets of mangetout as an example, she showed that one bag had A3 written on it and the other had A6. She captioned the post: “ Tesco staff training taught me the higher the number the fresher the product."
READ MORE: Lidl customers furious over quality of supermarket giant's toilet roll
Tesco no longer puts best before dates on fresh fruit and vegetables in order to reduce waste. Other supermarkets including Asda, Sainsbury's and Lidl have done the same thing.
However, the codes referred to by the ex-worker do seem to show when the item was packaged. According to people in the comments section, the packaging uses the 'Julian Code', with the letter representing the month the food was put in the bag and the number showing the day.
Under the clip, which has been liked more than 40,000 times, Gina wrote: “Well the letter is the month, A = January and the number is the day, so they're January 6 th .” Angel agreed, commenting: “A – January B – February C – March D – April and so on and so on and then the numbers is the day of the month.”
Wensley2194 pointed out: “Until you get to the start of the month then the high numbers from last month are worse.” And Tyler appeared to confirm what others were saying, by writing: “Coming from someone that works with produce in Tesco head office, it's a date code so yes technically correct”.
Lou Lou thanked the poster, saying: “Thank you for that, I wondered how to choose the freshest now they've stopped dating so many products.” And Floating By added: “I had no idea!! Thank you for sharing.”
The Daily Record, which initially reported on the story, has contacted Tesco for comment.
READ NEXT:
