You report (4 December) that a Co-op group in the east of the country intends to make some food available for purchase for a month beyond the best-by date at 10p. This is a helpful way of cutting some waste and I hope local Co-ops and others take note. However, you said the food could not go to food banks as they do not use food past this arbitrary date. This may be the case with bigger chains of food banks, but Bradford’s independent food bank, the Bradford Metropolitan Food Bank, has distributed food past the sell-by date since 2004. If it looks OK, smells OK and tastes OK, then it is OK and we will use it as long as the packaging isn’t breached. This year the generous Bradford population’s food donations for us are nudging £200,000 in value. I suspect many readers often ignore the sell-by date when preparing meals.
Keith Thomson
Bradford
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