How to tell if food is off by sight and smell: Experts reveal easy ways to check produce that’s past its sell-by date – and discoloured oranges are fine but slimy fish should be avoided
- Waste reduction charity Wrap has urged supermarkets to ditch best before dates
- Jamie Crummie, of Too Good To Go, says Brits are wasting £300 of food a year
- Here Jamie – and other experts – share the best way to ensure common foods are still in tact
Supermarkets across the UK have been urged to ditch best before dates on packaging for fruit and vegetables to prevent up to 14 million shopping baskets of food going to waste every year.
Waste reduction charity Wrap says selling produce loose helps consumers buy the right amount for their needs and lets them use their own judgement when items are still good to eat.
But do you know how to tell when your broccoli is past its best and when you should chuck out your oranges?
Jamie Crummie, co-founder of Too Good To Go, told FEMAIL: ’10 per cent of Europe’s food waste is over misunderstanding of date labels.
‘New research from anti-food waste app Too Good To Go has found that 50 per cent of Brits don’t know that food past its Best Before label is safe to eat. And this confusion is resulting in the average Brit wasting over £300 worth of Best Before dated food each year.
‘But as long as it has been stored properly and looks, smells and tastes okay, lots of food is safe to eat well past the best before date.
Here Jamie – and other experts – share the best way to ensure common foods are still in tact.
Supermarkets across the UK have been urged to ditch best before dates on packaging for fruit and vegetables to prevent up to 14 million shopping baskets of food going to waste every year. Waste reduction charity Wrap says selling produce loose helps consumers buy the right amount for their needs and lets them use their own judgement when items are still good to eat. But do you know how to tell when your broccoli is past its best and when you should chuck out your oranges?
Berries
‘Berries tend to spoil a little quicker than other fruit types, but you can always pop them in the freezer to help them last longer,’ Jamie explained.
‘You can tell if berries are going off as you’ll start to see visible mould or signs of rotting. Look out for changes in colour too.
‘For example, cherries can turn from bright red to brown when they start to go off.
‘If you notice the skin on your berries start to go wrinkly, it might not necessarily be rotten (unless you see any visible signs) but it’s best to try and make sure you use them that day. While the taste may not be quite the same, they work perfectly for baking.
Apples
Rohini Bajekal at Plant Based Health Professionals explained: ‘Look out for soft spots or bruising and wrinkled skin.
‘Apples that are rotting will have holes, and sometimes liquid breaking through the skin.
Oranges
‘Minor discolorations are fine, but oranges with mould need to be thrown away.
‘Also, oranges and similar fruits will lose their taste as well as Vitamin C content when stored for long periods.
Bananas
‘The best way to see if a banana has gone bad is to peel it.
‘Rotting bananas will be very mushy and brown.
‘If the peel is oozing or has liquid on them, throw them away immediately. If they are just very overripe, you can freeze them for smoothies.
Grapes
Rohini Bajekal at Plant Based Health Professionals explained: ‘It is often easy to tell if grapes are going or have gone bad.
‘If they are very soft to touch, a brown colour or are shrivelled it’s time to discard them.
Lemon and limes
‘Citrus fruits should be firm when ripe and ready to eat. Discolouration is quickly followed by mould so use them as quickly as possible when they start to turn.
‘The best way to store these fruits is in a zip lock back in the fridge. This will increase their shelf life by a few weeks.
Avocados
‘These can be tricky, as they over ripen so quickly and need to be used shortly after you buy them.
‘Choose to buy unripen over ready-to-eat for longevity. As soon as an avocado goes soft and discoloured with a brown flesh, it is no longer edible.
‘To speed up the avocado ripening process you can place unripe avocados in a brown paper bag with an apple or banana for two to three days until they are ready.
Carrots
‘Carrots, if correctly stored in the fridge, can last up to 4 weeks. They may discolour but can still be used in soups or stews.
‘Only when they go mouldy, should they be thrown away. Carrots should be stored loosely to keep them fresher for longer, and shrivelled ones can be revived by soaking in cold water. Always cut the leaves off before storing if necessary.
Potatoes
‘Raw potatoes are usually firm, and free of marks and dark spots. They can last up to a couple of months in a cool pantry.
‘If the potato starts to lose firmness, or lets off a mouldy odour, these are signs it’s coming to the end of its life. Potatoes with sprouts are still ok to eat but as long as you cut off the sprouts first.
Onions
‘Throw onions away that have started to sprout or gone mouldy. Onions also give off an acidic odour if they’re bad.
Green Vegetables
‘When vegetables are a few days old, they often lose their moisture and can turn a bit wilted. But this doesn’t mean they’re not good to eat!
‘As long as there’s no visible mould or rotting or an unpleasant smell they should be perfectly edible.
‘A handy tip for reviving vegetables is to dunk them in ice cold water for a few minutes.
‘Vegetables like carrots, celery, lettuce and spring onions can all be brought back to life with this simple trick.
Milk
Jamie added: ‘Milk is one of those foods that we all fear when it goes off and this inevitably leads to millions of glasses of the stuff going to waste every day potentially unnecessarily.
‘Milk can still be good to eat and drink after the date shown so long as it is stored properly. It’s easy to tell if it’s gone off – check for a lumpy texture, or a sour smell.
Yoghurt
‘While the texture and taste of yoghurt may change as time goes on, the acidic nature of the product means bad bacteria are kept at bay almost indefinitely – particularly if the yoghurt is unopened, and has been stored correctly.
‘So if your yoghurt looks and smells okay, it should be perfectly safe to eat for several weeks past the Best Before date.
Eggs
‘Keeping your eggs in the fridge may increase their usability by up to three weeks past the Best Before date.
‘You can do a quick test by putting the eggs in a bowl of water. If they sink, they’re still good to eat. But if they float, don’t use them.
Hard Cheese
‘When it comes to hard cheeses like Cheddar, it’s likely they will go mouldy over time but don’t panic if you see a small section – just cut off the mould and eat the rest.
‘Avoid doing this with soft cheese though, as the spores from mould often pass through soft cheese quickly.
‘Make sure you’re keeping your cheese in the fridge to help it keep fresher for longer.
Bread
David Wiener, Training and Nutrition Specialist at AI-based fitness and lifestyle coaching app Freeletics, explained: ‘The key thing to look out for in bread is if it’s mouldy.
‘However, if the mould is only on one piece of bread, you MUST throw out the rest of the loaf as even if the mould isn’t visible, it could still be contaminated in the early stages.
‘Bread that has gone hard is still eatable and acceptable to eat, as mould actually needs moisture to grow.
Fish
David added: ‘Yes, fish will always have a fishy smell, but if that fishy smell is unbearable and ten times stronger then when you first bought it, it means the fish is no longer okay to eat.
‘The fish will also become slimy and become slippery when you try to touch it.
‘As a rule of thumb, when you buy fish you should aim to eat it as soon as possible and it is known for a short use by date.
Cooked meat
‘With cooked meats like ham or turkey it is really important to use the dates to check if they have gone bad.
‘If the used by date has passed, one of the key takeaways to tell if the produce is off is the smell, because if meat gains a bad smell it means that bacteria and nastiness is growing inside.
‘As soon as the smell is off, throw it away. Also look out for change in texture and if the meat goes hard or slimy.
Uncooked meat
‘Similar to checking fruits, you need to look out for meat that has changed in texture and smells foul.
‘When uncooked meats have gone bad, they will also become sticky or slimy depending on the meat.
‘One common mistake is people throwing out meat when it has changed colour, but that doesn’t mean it has gone bad and is actually very normal.
‘Keep yoghurt in the fridge as long as possible and always use your nose’: Celebrity nutritionist tips on keeping food in date
Celebrity nutritionist Yalda Alaoui explained: ‘Without use-by dates, it is key to use your common sense when it comes to choosing whether to cook something or throw it out.
Celebrity nutritionist Yalda Alaoui explained: ‘Without use-by dates, it is key to use your common sense when it comes to choosing whether to cook something or throw it out.
‘When I was growing up in Morocco there wasn’t a supermarket until I was 12, so there were no use-by dates on the food I ate. Instead, we went to the farmer’s market or ate produce from my grandfather’s farm.
‘Fruit and veg is something you wouldn’t smell to check if it was okay: by the time it smells it’s probably been looking a bit rough for a while!
‘If the structure of the fruit or veg has changed then that is a good indication as to where it is in its lifetime.
‘Crunchy fruit and veg tends to be fresher and it will get softer as it ages. The difference here isn’t whether you should throw it out or not, instead, you need to change how you might be preparing it – a mushy banana is perfect for smoothies but not great for having as a snack on its own.
‘Something I have posted before is my crunchy lettuce hack: if your salad is looking limp, soak it in water and a few tablespoons of vinegar and, after 20-30 minutes, you’ll have crisp leaves again.
‘Another thing I love to do with bananas that look as though they are past their best is freeze them and turn them into ‘nice cream’, (I have a recipe for this on my website Eat Burn Sleep) when bananas start to go brown they are higher in natural sugar and lower in starch making them perfect for use in a sweet treat. With fruit and veg you can often see if it is going off if it is discoloured or growing mould, in the early stages you can cut around the bits that are past their best and still use it because, at the end of the day, you won’t die from eating a mushy tomato.
‘Meat and other animal produce should be treated differently from fruit and vegetables as eating them out of date can cause food poisoning.
‘With meat I find it is best to cook it within the first few days of purchase and then store it cooked, a meal that is perfect for this is chilli con Carne.
‘With minced meat there is more chance of it going off once opened as there is more exposure to the air, therefore oxidation is quicker, it is easier to cook your mince early on and then store it in the freezer for later.
‘Unlike fruit and veg, smelling meat will give a good indication of whether it is okay to eat or not as it gives off a strong odour once it is past its best. You should also check for a change in appearance, if you have any doubt with either of these then it is best to err on the side of caution and dispose of it.
‘Yoghurt and cheeses are slightly different as the longer they are stored, the more bacteria they grow and bacteria is good for you.
‘When I was a child we used to leave yoghurt for as long as possible in order to get the most gut-friendly bacteria out of it!
‘Overall I think the reduction in use by dates is a positive move for sensible and sustainable shopping.
‘The lack of use by dates should allow people to be more connected to their food and really consider what they’re buying and what they will use it for: if you want banana for a snack then buy it when you want it but if you need it for banana bread buy it in advance so that it is the right consistency when you want to use it. We never had sell by or use by dates when I was a child, we just used common sense to see what was fresh and good to eat.
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