Seriously out-of-date food this time!!!

[SaligoBay]

Ecomarché in Roquemaure is closed, after the meat section was found to be indulging in some highly suspect practices.

Among other things, at the end of the week they would un-package the unsold meat and leave it soaking in a tub over the weekend (in water, salt, and another as-yet unidentified substance) to make it look fresh again.

Monday it would be re-packaged again and put back on the shelves, sometimes with e.g. Mexican sauce or similar to disguise its non-freshness.

Meat is such scary stuff      (But before any veggies jump on me, my only incidents of food-poisoning have been from veggie dishes   ).

[Baz]

I have noticed that French supermarkets do not watch sell buy dates. Unlike the UK where it is not permitted to sell any item passed its sell buy date. I really cannot understand why anyone would want risk illness by eating a product passed its sell buy date. Manufacturers know the safe period for shelf life and surely this should be observed rigously even if shops offer a big discounts to unload the product.

My and my family's health is far more important and I look at all sell buy dates before purchase.

Baz

[Richard-R]

We always get funny looks in the supermarket when we dig through to find the best dated products and even more funny looks shorting through packets of ham to find the ones with the least fat.

[BJSLIV]

"We always get funny looks in the supermarket":

But surely no funnier than the bemused English, when they first witness the opening of multiple cheese boxes, and the  thumb pressing routines of a French housewife checking the ripeness of the Camemberts

[Teamedup]

I thumb the camambert. I sniff and test the melons, prefer the female ones. I know how to test for a good pineapple. And I most certainly go through all the packets of ham etc for the freshest and with the least fat. Does anyone look....... don't know and care less.

 

I was told yesterday in Intermarche that I should keep an eye on the dates. I was nice about it and suggested that maybe that was their job.

[GRT17]

Yuk!

Recycled meat, that sounds horrendous............think I could become vegetarian.

Gill

[Richardbk]

I have noticed that French supermarkets do not watch sell buy dates. Unlike the UK where it is not permitted to sell any item passed its sell buy date.

 

Is this actually the case ? I thought I saw recently some BBC food programme that there in fact 3 dates in the UK ( as often seen in France)

sell by date is simply a guidence date, mainly for the benefit of the supermarket

best before is another guidence date - e.g eating it after this date is not going to kill you but it may not taste very good

consume before - this is the only date that matters. Eat it after this date and your life is at risk

 

regs

Richard

[JohnM]

I saw that programme as well. Yes, Sell By dates are all about stock rotation. Best by dates all about quality, and use by dates are for perishable goods (but because the supermarkets play safe things are usually OK after all of these dates).

Supermarkets do not really want you to keep things after the "date" because you will buy more if you throw stuff away as it reaches the date.