The news this morning that Sainsbury’s, in partnership with Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), want food relabelled so that it can be frozen up until its 'use by' date, not just on the day of purchase, is welcome, but not new. That uneaten chicken pie in the fridge is fine to go in the freezer right up until the 'use by' date. Our guidelines have always stated that it's fine to freeze food after the day of purchase as long as it has been correctly stored. We hope other supermarkets start highlighting this to their customers.
The 'use by' date is required to provide information to help us to get the best from our food and know when it is no longer safe.
The big ‘no-no’, as all regular readers of this blog appreciate, is eating food after its 'use by' date, and so my spirits sank this morning as I watched BBC Breakfast News where, yet again, the old canard was pushed out that as long as the food smells all right, then it is ok to eat. We’ve been trying to debunk this particular food myth for some time, along with ones like washing your chicken before eating (bad idea, you might just spread bugs round the kitchen) and the 'three second rule', which states that if you pick food up off the floor within three seconds, it’s fine to eat (again, bad idea, if you’ve dropped food on the floor it’s probably best not to eat it if it’s been there for three seconds or 300). So it’s not smell, or a lack of it, which determines if a food is safe to eat or not, it is the bacteria and you can’t always smell that.
I’d be interested in hearing about any other weird and wonderful food hygiene tips you might have, perhaps some handed down over the years – you never know, some of them might make sense.