The Best Before Issue

The rules about food labelling are not simple.

Before we started in 1996, people were scared about best-before dates.

Stock Solutions has been an Instrumental part of Demystifying and Normalizing , Best Before Dated Food Consumption , for over 25 years in Australia.

You could call us One of the Pioneers in this country of the Discount Food Business.

By law, nearly all food – with the exception of uncut fruit and veg, alcohol, salt, sugar and chewing gum – needs to have a date of some sort. Dairy, meat, fish and ready meals invariably require a “use by” date – if you eat it after this date, there is a risk to your health.

But all other food needs only a “best before” date. This means it is completely safe to eat, but the quality may not be as good after that time. There’s nothing stopping a shop selling this food.

It is this category – best before, rather than use by – is what Stock Solutions and our retailers specialise in selling.

Discount Food Retailers selling unwanted stock at deep discounts were once the food industry’s dirty secret; supermarkets and manufacturers often used to insist their branding was stripped off packets or jars in case it damaged their reputation, but it is now a fast-growing market, as more people embrace the idea that products deemed not good enough for a supermarket shelf can still be good enough to eat.

Most food that is thrown away is done so by consumers. Of the estimated 2 million tonnes of edible food wasted in Australia every year , 70% happens in people’s homes: salad wilting in bags, stale biscuits at the back of the cupboard, uneaten food scraped off plates. However 16%, is caused by manufacturers and retailers.

It is this 16% of food waste that Stock Solutions has been trying to keep out of Landfill since 1996. We are constantly in touch with manufacturers and Food Importers Australia wide, to assist them in dealing with their excess stock.

Experts say that advances in plastics technology have also been crucial to extending shelf life.

The more premium products often have packaging with a number of plastic layers laminated together, which help reduce oxidative rancidity and light-induced rancidity – that distinctive smell and tang caused by oxygen or light entering the packet and which immediately tells you the food is off.

Even the humble plastic bag inside a cereal box may look unchanged since the 70s but has been improved. You see it as a very simple plastic bag. But in reality, it’s quite complex; it’s a combination of different grades of polyethylene. A bag that contains Potato Chips or Twisties is made up of usually seven different layers. Each layer is bringing a specific performance: one would be for the sealing, so you have a tight bag; one would be for the mechanical strength, so it doesn’t burst; one provides a moisture barrier. It’s all those different layers that combine to give the final properties needed, for maximum product life.

Considering the high quality of most packaging, manufacturers are too cautious about best-before dates. Every day, many Hundreds of Thousands of Potato Chips are made, and nearly all are given a 12-16 week shelf life , Snack Brands and Pepsico, who dominate the shelf space in Australian supermarkets for the Chip and Snack Category, will not supply supermarkets with products that have less than eight weeks left. This is done to minimise wastage, and any product below this threshold is offered to specialist discount retailers or to wholesalers like Stock Solutions.

Some food technologists are sympathetic about manufacturers being conservative with their dates.

So next time you visit your local Discount Food Outlet, have fun , save a fortune, and feed yourself and your family at greatly discounted prices.

Happy Shopping

Mark