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Food expiry dates and online grocery shopping | CHOICE
Checked for accuracy by our qualified fact-checkers and verifiers. Find out more about fact-checking at CHOICE. More people are doing their grocery shopping online than ever before. And there are clear benefits, particularly when you're navigating COVID restrictions — being able to shop any time you want and avoiding contact with others, for example.
But online grocery shopping isn't all smooth sailing. One complaint online shopping asks for date we hear often is of food being delivered that's close to or past its date marking. It could be a 3L bottle of milk that expires in 24 hours; an expensive fillet steak bought as a treat for an anniversary dinner on the weekend that has to online shopping asks for date eaten on the day of delivery instead; a bag of salad mix that's already past its use by date.
It might be just a minor inconvenience, online shopping asks for date, but sometimes it's a major disruption, and can even pose a potential health risk. While you might choose to buy a short-dated product in store because you know you can use it that day or you're drawn to its marked-down pricehaving one foisted on you can be irritating, to say the least.
It's pretty annoying to get a week's worth of groceries only to find all the meat will need to be used in a couple of days. Jessica says "I received meat that would have needed to be consumed in the next six hours to remain in date. I had already cooked that night's dinner so it was wasted. I don't generally check the use by date on dairy goods but have been caught out with a large tub of yoghurt being past the use by date by the time I went to use it a couple of days later," says Gina.
Some survey respondents even speculated if sending short-dated products was a retailer tactic for getting rid of products close to the end of their shelf life. When you're shopping instore you can check the date marking on a product's label and reach to the back of the cabinet for an alternative with a longer shelf life. Clearly you don't have this option when shopping online, so are there measures in place to ensure you don't receive unreasonably short-dated or even out-of-date food products?
Supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths dominate the online grocery shopping industry in Australia, so we reached out to them for comment. A Coles' spokesperson told us, "We aim to stock only fresh products of the highest quality in all of our fresh food departments. But they add, "We don't currently offer our customers the choice to select specific use-by dates for individual items. Woolworths' online shopping platform has more functionality.
A Woolworths' spokesperson told us: "Our dedicated personal shoppers hand-pick fruit and veg for online orders to meet the unique requests of our customers. This can include picking an under-ripe banana for later in the week or ready-to-eat avocado for that night's dinner. Kerry says, "I like that when you buy items like bananas you can ask for some that are yet to ripen, so you get some yellow and some green. I've also learnt you can add notes to most items so I ask for the fresh items such as prepared salads with expiry dates as far in the future as possible after my experience of getting one that was a few days after purchase.
It requires more effort but I think it's worth it. You can order more to last longer and shop less. Both Coles and Woolworths offer refunds or exchanges for products that don't meet expectations. It's an offence for retailers to sell food that's past its use-by date, according to Australian food regulator FSANZ.
A food that's past its best before date can still be sold, however, provided the food is fit for human consumption — it hasn't deteriorated or perished, for example. But it might not be something you'd choose to buy if you were shopping instore. So what are your rights if you receive an out-of-date food product, or if you online shopping asks for date short-changed by the short-dating on a delivered food item?
A Coles spokesperson tells us: "We offer a full refund or replacement for products that do not meet our customers' quality expectations. Likewise, a Woolworths spokesperson tells us: "If customers have any concerns with the quality of a fresh food product they've bought either instore or online shopping asks for date, they can return it for a refund and replacement as part of our Fresh or Free guarantee. In practice we found that customers aren't always opting to ask for a replacement or requesting a refund.
In John's experience, "Mostly the supermarket refunds without question, but it is still hard when you have to make a special trip to the supermarket to pick up a replacement. But almost a third did pursue an exchange or refund for expired and short-dated foods, and the experience of those who shared details with us was generally positive. Gary agrees. Rebecca's experience was similar. Adrienne says: "In my case, the cauliflower rice was due to expire on the day of receipt and I complained and got a refund.
While a positive resolution to a problem is pleasing, it wouldn't be necessary if customers are delivered fresh, good quality and in-date products in the first place — our research shows that this isn't always happening. Supermarkets should take responsibility for sticking to their online shopping asks for date guidelines, online shopping asks for date, rather than the onus being on individual shoppers to complain and ask for refunds.
Date marks indicate the shelf life of a food — the length of time a food should keep before its quality begins to deteriorate or, in some cases, online shopping asks for date, it becomes less nutritious or unsafe. All food with a shelf life of less than two years must carry a date marking, and there are two main types:. This is the date up until which you'd expect a food to retain all of its quality attributes — colour, online shopping asks for date, taste, texture and flavour, for example — provided the package is unopened and it has been stored correctly, online shopping asks for date.
It's safe to eat past this date, but its quality may have diminished. This is the last date on which the food is safe to eat, again provided the package is unopened and it has been stored correctly. After this date the food shouldn't be eaten due to health and safety reasons — a build-up of bacteria may occur, for example.
Short-dated is an expression used to describe a product that's at, or very close to, its date marking. Our food expiry date survey was sent to people from the CHOICE research community who have previously indicated in surveys they shop for groceries online. A total of online grocery shoppers responded.
The CHOICE research community Voice Your Choice is made up of around 12, people representing CHOICE members and Australian consumers. Our in-house consumer research team designs all surveys and analyses the results to ensure they are reported in a robust and fair way.
Fieldwork was conducted 1—16 July Skip to content Skip to footer navigation. Top of the content. Online shopping asks for date is disabled If possible, please enable JavaScript for an enhanced experience on the CHOICE website. Food expiry dates and online grocery shopping What happens when supermarkets deliver out-of-date food? Rachel Clemons. Last updated: 08 September Fact-checked. Fact-checked Checked for accuracy by our qualified fact-checkers and verifiers. We care about accuracy.
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· Posted in Legal services & complaint processes, Shopping & contracts on by Amanda:: Tags: Regulated by us, Distance sales contracts:: Comments (). A lot of · So you’re online dating, you find someone you’re interested in, and it turns out they’re interested in you too—That’s great! You’ve matched, you’ve connected, you’re into · Reports of out-of-date food being delivered were less common, but not insignificant. Just over one in ten people (13%) we surveyed had received food products in an online shop that were past their date markings. 7% received products past their use-by date. 8% received products past their best before date. 4% received products past their expiry
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