Officials there discovered 25kg of seafood and margarine past
the sell-by date, and another 24kg of meat, sauces, cheese and sugar that had no visible sell-by date.
Dalton Phillips, of Morrisons, said: "The yoghurts I eat are often way past
the sell-by date.
EGGS How long they really last: Three weeks past
the sell-by date in the fridge; one year in the freezer (out of shell).
When police questioned the two, they discovered that their cold storage truck contained about three tons of meat, and officials from the Consumer Protection Office later found that
the sell-by date on the meat had expired.
They also found examples where
the sell-by date was obscured by the price label.
SHOP-BOUGHT SANDWICHES: Only risk one day past
the sell-by date.
She claimed
the sell-by date system to ensure the freshness and quality of food could easily be changed by staff, who would wipe out existing dates and write in later dates.
But they quickly established that
the sell-by date was not all that it seemed.
Most DJ-mix CDs are just Saturday night souvenirs, all the latest spun-sugar club hits slapped together and rushed into stores before
the sell-by date passes.
The sell-by date can be several weeks in the future.
Scientists also found that the eggs did not show a marked decrease in quality five weeks after
the sell-by date.
So what are we to make of
the sell-by date? "Egg quality isn't affected for quite a long time, which allows for storage beyond
the sell-by date," says Jones.
magazine said processing plants may relabel
the sell-by date several times before meat reaches shelves and it is all legal.
When questioned, Mrs Nakra said the print of
the sell-by date on Lunchables was smaller than on other products and hard to read.