Hi OzBs,
I sometimes see some food items especially in Asian/Indian grocery stores which have been past their expiry date. Are they allowed to sell it? TBH, haven't seen one in Colesworth.
Shop owners defnitely know about the date expiration as they heavily discount the products. This question is more out of curiosity on whether by law they are allowed to sale or not.
Cheers,
b_sean.
I've seen Spudshed sell past Use by date frozen pizzas for a whopping $1 discount. I grabbed one without looking at the dates, got home, went back to return and the cashier just looked at me and said 'it's frozen it's fine', no thanks at least have it for 80% off then ffs 😂
Sure it was used by? At worst a frozen pizza will be freezer burnt, it's not going to kill you
Yup, I'm one who's definitely very lax with best before dates and eat 4 years past BB timtams, but out of principle I'm not going to pay near full price for past Use by pizza 😂
interested in knowing this too. Hate it when items you take home have a short date and are years old.
You really should be checking expiry dates before purchasing food items.
I'll interview you at the checkout of your next big weekly shop at colesworth and see how many of your items you actually date checked, i bet it wont be all or even most of them lol
As someone who worked in a department store's food section for five years, I always check the expiry date.
I don't know about the legality of it but as a general rule of thumb, products can still be fine well past their best before dates however, products may only be OK up to a few days past their use by dates and sometimes earlier.
"Best before" is just a signal that the food may lose quality and/or nutritional value. For example chocolate will normally be fine for a fair while after the best before date. This can be left to the consumers judgement as to whether it is OK or not. I've seen salt that's marketed as "10,000 year old salt" with an expiry date of next year.
"Use By" will be used for items that can be considered dangerous to consume after that date. For example milk and raw meats. Of course they may not be dangerous straight away.
my local indian run Foodlands, offer them halfprice if they reach best before, and put a box of goods out front of shop at closing for use by/expiry
a lot of businesses donate expired food to not for profits.
Do you buy much other stuff at these Asian Indian shops?
a lot of businesses donate expired food to not for profits.
Not 'expired' food.
I very much doubt they would be donating Expired food, you might want to double check that fact
My bad, expired best by date for most donatable food types.
OP could also have found this themselves, as a guide
https://www.foodbank.org.au/expiry-and-distribution/?
So exactly what OOD food types are 'alleged' to be sold by the OP?
Legally no they can't sell it even at a discount.
I don't know what the post-purchase liabilities are if someone gets significantly sick if they thought it was just an item on sale.
what the post-purchase liabilities are if someone gets significantly sick
easy big payout through civil suit…
I had a supermarket refuse to sell me something because it was past it's date. I showed them the date but said I still wanted it.
I have done this before too, only a day out of date, had to convince them to let me pay them for something they were going to chuck in the bin haha
Coles & Woolworths checkout machines won't let you buy something past the expiry date. My local IGA doesn't have this problem.
Yep IGA is where I did it, no self service there, they actually employ enough people to scan and pack your goods, it’s great!
yeah but you're generally paying more for it, no?
@andresampras: No, i am unsure where this idea comes from but IGA usually have pretty good prices, certainly at my local one on the Gold Coast. Their weekly specials usually match, and often beat the discounts on offer at coles/woolies, they also have additonal mini sales through out the week in addition to the weekly specials that might be a 3-day sale or a weekend sale. Plus a good amount of near use-by date heavy discounting which i dont see much of these days at colesworths. They also have a pretty extensive range of their classic Black & Gold budget priced items which compare favourably in price with coleworths house brands.
It is about a 10th of the size of a woolies/coles though, so there are only so many products they can stock, so maybe 2-3 times a year i will head over to coleworth to stock up on a few things in bulk but 99% of the time im shopping at IGA.
Might just be my small town mentality from where i lived most of my life before i moved to the gold coast, but it feels better supporting IGA than coles/woolies/aldi/etc.
Plus the staff are actually really nice and genuinely friendly in a way that i rarely feel at the big supermarkets :)
i am unsure where this idea comes from
Whenever I've shopped at IGA (in sydney), I pay more for the same stuff. I've only ever gone there for stuff I can't find anywhere else, or for quick purchases if there just happens to be one nearby when I want something.
Expired food still can be used - for weight loss programs :)
Ask any charity store: Bludgers ONLY deserve the freshest!
Before anyone says legal or non legal. A reference would be great.
The first reply from Hybroid literally had a NSW Govt link as a reference…
hmph look at this person with their fancy facts and logic
Thank you all
Expiry/use-by date? No.
Best before date? Yes.
https://www.foodauthority.nsw.gov.au/food-labelling/stay-saf…