What the little known codes on fresh supermarket food mean
In a bid to cut down on food waste, a number of big supermarkets have introduced a new code system for fresh produce. Here's how it works.
With Christmas just around the corner, people up and down the country will be stocking up their fridges and cupboards ahead of the big day.
While Britons will be preparing to stuff their faces on 25 December, as a nation, our eyes are often bigger than our bellies, with around seven million tonnes of food ending up in the bin each festive season in the UK, according to Commercial Waste.
In a bid to prevent food from going to waste, and to help save shoppers money, a number of supermarkets have been replacing best-before dates with a new system of codes to discourage people from throwing perfectly edible food in the bin.
Consumer champion Which? has put together a handy guide on how to make the most of your Christmas shop, and how to make sense of these increasingly common encrypted codes.
What do the codes mean?
The way these codes work vary between supermarkets, but helpfully, Which? has broken it all down.
Codes at Asda and Tesco start with the letter A to mark January, B to represent February, all the way up to L for December.
The following number marks the day of the month. For example, a box of peaches from Tesco with the code C3 would mean 3 March.
This system allows staff to work out when food was put onto the shelves, and to rotate stock more efficiently in order to reduce waste and to make sure shoppers are buying the freshest produce.
In Sainsbury's the date is displayed between the letters "J" and "S", so a code reading "J2811S" would mean 28 September.
Meanwhile, Morrisons uses the first letter of the month followed by the day of the month, which means D5 would translate to 5 December.
Why have supermarkets got rid of best-before dates?
These codes have been brought in as a result of a number of big supermarkets getting rid of best-before dates on a number of fresh fruit, vegetable and salad products in a bid to prevent food waste.
Announcing its move towards a code system in December 2022, Morrisons' head of technical produce and horticulture Damon Johnson said: “We hope by removing dates from our produce lines, changing our messaging on packs and by providing our customers with advice on storage, we can support households in extending the life of their food and save customers money this Christmas.”
The idea is that best before indicates just that – the final date at which a food product can be considered at its best quality – not that the food isn't safe to eat. By scrapping best before, supermarkets hope to encourage customers to use their own personal judgement about when food has gone off.
In 2018, Tesco said it was removing best-before labels on a number of products to help "prevent perfectly edible food from being thrown away as a part of its farm-to-fork approach to tackling food waste".
According to waste management company, Waste Managed, the UK retail sector contributes around 270,000 tonnes of food waste each year, with supermarkets being a major source, while as a nation, the UK wastes approximately 9.52 million tonnes of food every year, with 70% of that waste coming from households.
How can consumers tell if food is off?
If in doubt, the "sniff test" is a good way of checking if food is still okay to eat, advises the Food Standards Agency (FSA).
"For foods with a best-before date (which concerns food quality), you may choose to use sensory cues to find out if the food is okay to eat," it says.
"For example, you could look for visible mould on bread, taste to see if biscuits/crisps are stale, or sniff/smell some dairy products with a best-before date to see if they have soured."
Food you shouldn't take your chances with
While supermarkets are encouraging shoppers to use their judgement more for certain fresh produce, there are some foods consumers really shouldn't take risks with.
Food considered high risk includes any "ready-to-eat" products which "support the growth of pathogenic bacteria easily and does not require any further heat treatment or cooking", according to the University of Warwick's health and safety department.
"These types of foods are more likely to be implicated as vehicles of food poisoning organisms consumed in food poisoning incidents," it says. "Such foods are usually high in protein, require strict temperature control and protection from contamination."
In May and June of this year, two people died and over 120 were hospitalised during a major E.coli outbreak contaminated pre-packed ready-to-eat food, including sandwiches, chicken salads and wraps.
The University of Warwick classes the following products as "high-risk" foods.
Cooked meat and poultry such as: Beef, pork, ham, lamb, chicken, turkey, duck
Cooked meat products such as: Meat pies and pasties, pate, meat stock and gravy, cook-chill meals
Dairy produce such as: Milk, cream, artificial cream, custards, products containing unpasteurised milk, ripened soft and moulded cheeses
Egg products such as: Cooked eggs, quiche and products containing uncooked or lightly cooked eggs, for example; mayonnaise, mousse, home-made ice cream
Shellfish and other sea-foods such as: Mussels, cockles, cooked prawns, raw oysters
Farinaceous dishes including: Cooked rice, pasta, couscous
While many supermarkets are gradually doing away with best-before dates, the FSA says it is really important to differentiate between these dates and use-by dates.
"A use-by date on food is about safety. This is the most important date to remember. Never eat food after the use-by date, even if it looks and smells ok, as it could make you very ill," it says.
"You can eat food until midnight on the use-by date shown on a product, but not after, unless the food has been cooked or frozen. You will see use-by dates on food that goes off quickly, such as meat products or ready-to-eat salads.
"For the use-by date to be a valid guide, you must carefully follow the food's storage instructions. For example, if the instructions on the packaging tell you to refrigerate after opening, you should keep the food in a fridge at 5C or below."
The FSA adds: "After the use-by date, don't eat, cook or freeze your food. And remember, you cannot smell the bacteria which make you ill."
