A content creator has revealed the hidden meaning behind supermarket codes to help buyers find the freshest produce.
Some UK retailers began removing the ‘best before’ labels off vegetables as early as 2018 in an effort to reduce waster. Studies have shown that when food has gone beyond its best buy date, it is frequently thrown out, despite usually being acceptable to eat passed its best buy date.
However, when no ‘best before’ label is present, there’s still a way to find the freshest food. Grace Forell, a TikToker who goes by the handle The Sustainable Spender, says products without a best purchase date will have a supermarket code on the label.
She explained where to discover the codes, what they look like, and what they imply in her TikTok video, which included still photos of the different produce items in a slide presentation.
Text imposed over the first slide of her TikTok reads: “These 'secret' supermarket codes will change the way you shop. Supermarkets have gotten rid of many best before dates from their fruit & vegetables.”
But as the video points out, they do include internal codes that hold date-related information. The Tesco image of a cucumber displayed the code 'H09.'
According to Forell: “H stands for the month of August. (Because A is for January, B for February, etc).
“The number is the date in this case the 9th of August,” she explained.
Forell, who assists people in making sustainable purchases, said “the later the date, the fresher the produce”.
Customers of Asda should be aware that the store labels its products using the same manner as Tesco. All of the Sainsbury's codes terminate in J or S, so customers should disregard those letters and focus only on the digits that fall between them.
The video continued: “At Sainsbury's, the date is written as DDMM. So these peppers [labelled J1008S) are the 10th of August.
Forell added: “Save this for the next time you go shopping. And share to help your friends pick the choicest produce! And one last thing: Don't throw away food just because it's gone past one of these dates.”
She concluded: “These are about freshness and quality, NOT food safety (like use by dates).”
Forell’s tips come as the ongoing cost-of-living crisis continues to be a pressing concern for many in the UK, with households grappling with increased food prices.
According to Worldpanel, consumers' anxiety over the cost of shopping has increased, and food costs have increased by 5.2 per cent over the month of July compared to last year.
This year, the average household is set to spend £275 more on food and drink, which means shoppers are buying less expensive goods or make simpler meals at home.
The research organisation, which tracks the purchasing patterns of 30,000 homes in the UK says about one-fifth of UK households are "struggling" with their grocery prices, with some of them reaching a point where they are unable to reduce their food expenses any further.
The UK's overall inflation rate increased by 3.6 per cent in the year ending in June, the highest level since January 2024, as a result of rising food prices.
