LCC Broadcast News Room

There has been a massive increase in the number of people turning to the internet to buy discount groceries which are past their official shelf life. The food is still safe to eat, because although it has past its best before date, it is within its use by date. Following on from the success of the Freecycle movement which allows members to swap unwanted household goods, sites offering short dated or out of date food and drink has been the latest way to cut costs and reduce waste. In an exclusive blind taste test carried out by LCC, it was found that the quality of out of date food was ‘hit and miss’ depending on what the product was. Our tasters could tell a clear difference between out of date and in date crisps, but most could not tell the difference when it came to biscuits. Environmental campaigners have welcomed the trend, saying that it can help reduce Britain’s huge mountain of food waste. Food charities estimate that more than seventeen million tonnes of surplus food is dumped by supermarkets in landfill sites every year. Food writer and broadcaster Bill Buckley supports the principle of eating out of date food, saying that labelling has made people forget how to judge for themselves whether food is good to eat. “We’ve become disconnected with our food, and people would rather believe what it says on a label than use their own common sense.” Date labelling has been criticised for being unclear, and often confusing, and people struggle to tell the difference in meaning between ‘best before’, ‘use by’ and ‘sell by’ dates. Bill Buckley supports scrapping the system completely, he says “grandma didn’t have that; grandma had her eyes, her nose, and even her taste buds.” The websites offer a range of stock from many big brands, including Heinz, McVities, Nescafe and Cadbury. But there is a predominance of less healthy options like chocolate and processed food, which would make it difficult for anyone relying on this way of shopping to eat a healthy diet. Shopping this way can save you a lot of money: online you can pay only 19p for a packet of wholegrain Ryvita, and £1 for forty eight bags of cheese Doritos. So despite not being healthy, Dan Cluderay, the founder of approvedfood.co.uk, says customers save seventy five per cent on retail prices. Click on these sites to see what is on offer: www.approvedfoods.co.uk www.foodbargains.co.uk For more clarification on date labelling: http://www.eatwell.gov.uk/foodlabels/labellingterms