Gone off Milk

Catxscotch

I went into a Spar shop yesterday to buy milk. Was in a bit of a hurry so didn't check the dates the way I normally would. Anyway go to have my breakfast this morning and lid says it's out of date today! I don't have a receipt as you have to ask for one, and as it was only milk I didn't bother. Im tempted to bring it back, but will they kick up a fuss as it was in date yesterday when I bought it? 2 litres by the way

Oryx

Did it taste ok?

hairyprincess

Catxscotch wrote: »

I went into a Spar shop yesterday to buy milk. Was in a bit of a hurry so didn't check the dates the way I normally would. Anyway go to have my breakfast this morning and lid says it's out of date today! I don't have a receipt as you have to ask for one, and as it was only milk I didn't bother. Im tempted to bring it back, but will they kick up a fuss as it was in date yesterday when I bought it? 2 litres by the way

By law they must supply you with a receipt.

To be quite honest, I'd let the milk go. Just be more date aware yourself in future

jor el

Catxscotch wrote: »

Im tempted to bring it back,

You have no grounds to return it. It was in date when you bought it, and still is today.

hairyprincess wrote: »

By law they must supply you with a receipt.

Only if you ask. There is no requirement to always supply a receipt.

hairyprincess

I stand corrected http://www.nca.ie/nca/buying-goods

I was certain you had to be supplied with a receipt. My apologies for the misleading info so.

rameire

is it Best Before
or Use By.
both mean different things, and if stored correctly, and is Best Before then it should be good for many more days.

FanadMan

Even if it says Use By today it should be fine as long as it was in the fridge. And most of those dates are a guideline, they are mostly fine a day or two after the date.

Just try it and if it's bad, go buy another one and check the date

seamus

Milk is always "use by", not "best before". "Best before" typically only applies to goods which don't perish in a short timeframe - chocolate, alcohol, etc. Stuff which perishes in a matter of days or weeks is almost always "use by".

Even if you had a receipt, the argument from the shop's point of view is that the milk was perfectly suitable for sale at the time that you bought it and if you had an issue with the expiry date on it than you shouldn't have purchased it.

Obviously any shop owner with half a brain would just swap it out and dump the returned carton, but in plain terms the shop would be completely in the right to refuse to take it back.

Gingernuts31

It be fine im guessing, I drink the low fat stuff only 1% fat and its use by date is today, I still had it with my tea and shake and fine after it. But I wouldn't touch it after today though.

rameire

Gingernuts31 wrote: »

But I wouldn't touch it after today though.

why not
it doesnt magically just turn at the stroke of midnight,
if it has been stored in the fridge, it can be used for many more days.

john_cappa

The milk i used this morning went off two days ago! Tasted ok though!

Gingernuts31

Im sure it would be fine but its a mental thing of knowing the date is gone. Nothing to do with the taste of it just the knowings its actually gone off according to the manufacture

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Bottom line is that it was In date when purchased. It just wasn't used until out of date - ergo No Consumer Issue. That said, I know my local shop would replace it if I explained the situation in a civil manner; although it's hardly worth it for a carton of milk

Catxscotch

Yeah I had it in my tea earlier and it's grand, I still will buy more this evening though!! I'm just annoyed I've been stung by this a couple of times.. My own fault, just need to be more aware!!

jor el

john_cappa wrote: »

The milk i used this morning went off two days ago! Tasted ok though!

If it tasted ok then it hasn't gone off. It's just beyond the date that the producer will stand over the product. Those dates will be conservative. If it was gone off it would taste and smell sour, and probably be curdled. It still wouldn't be poisonous, just wouldn't taste to pleasant.

coylemj

For what its worth, the low fat stuff goes off quicker than full cream milk, I was told this by a lady from Avonmore when I complained about a carton of the red Supermilk which had not yet reached the expiration date but was gone sour.

Most small convenience stores employ part time staff who haven't a clue about stock rotation so you need to always look at the dates on egg and milk cartons when buying. Clueless staff often put new stock on the shelf by simply pushing the older stuff to the back when what they should be doing is pulling the old stock to the front and putting the new stock behind it so that the older stock gets sold first.

Gingernuts31

coylemj wrote: »

Most small convenience stores employ part time staff who haven't a clue about stock rotation so you need to always look at the dates on egg and milk cartons when buying. Clueless staff often put new stock on the shelf by simply pushing the older stuff to the back when what they should be doing is pulling the old stock to the front and putting the new stock behind it so that the older stock gets sold first.

Its not just part-time staff who do this. A full time girl I work with has stocks stuff that i've come along afterwards to stock more and she had the older stuff at the back. Im only part-time in my job but I hate when stuff isn't rotated. I always try to do the crisps and that because there is a few boxs of the same stuff but with different dates but most o fhte others don't look at the dates. An example would be they opened a box of Tayo C/O going off in Aug when there was still a full box of the same product in the office dated July :mad:. I took out all of the aug ones, bagged them up and filled it up again with July.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Gingernuts31 wrote: »

. A full time girl I work with has stocks stuff that i've come along afterwards to stock more and she had the older stuff at the back. Im only part-time in my job but I hate when stuff isn't rotated..

At the risk of dragging this thread even further off topic than it has already drifted : I don't know anybody, who when buying any dairy product, doesn't go to the back of the shelf for the longer dated items. You're codding yourself if you think hiding the newer items at the back has any substantial effect any more.

coylemj

Ignacio Fat Hog wrote: »

You're codding yourself if you think hiding the newer items at the back has any substantial effect any more.

Not everyone is that smart or observant and anyway the alternative is that the shop waits for the old stock to disappear before putting the new stock on the shelf and in most cases that just isn't practical because (1) you'd need extra storage space in the back room to keep the new stock and (2) different shelves would go empty at different times of the day and you'd have a lot of disgruntled customers.

The shop would quickly take on the look of a place that was about to go bust because the owner couldn't get credit from suppliers to keep the shelves full so for most shops there is no alternative to mixing stock with different expiry dates on the same shelf.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

I see the dairy delivery guys stacking milk in the Mace and Spar near me. It's never done by the shop staff.

Gingernuts31

Ignacio Fat Hog wrote: »

I see the dairy delivery guys stacking milk in the Mace and Spar near me. It's never done by the shop staff.

well the milk we get is there on a trolley when we get in in the morning and the avonmore guy comes in the afternoon, brings the stuff in on the trolley and leaves it there. The only sales rep I have seen that stocks anything is the HB guy. Apart from the milk guys not even carrolls the meat people stock their own stuff they drop it in and go. Would make our life easier if they did but none of them do excep the HB guy.

coylemj

It varies from store to store, Dunnes are probably the ones that get the highest % of stock stacked on shelves by the suppliers. A huge amount of fresh food in Dunnes is put on shelves by the suppliers, I was falling over some of them today - bread, raspberries, you name it.

Pkiernan

OP: you should take this all the way to the European Court of Human Rights.

Shouldn't cost you more than €200 grand in legal bills to get your €1.99 back.

Or you could just drink the milk.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

What was the Consumer Issue raised anyway? :rolleyes::p

dudara

There really isn't any Consumer Issue here as the item was in date when purchased.

rubadub

jor el wrote: »

It's just beyond the date that the producer will stand over the product. Those dates will be conservative.

+1, they will take into account poor refrigeration. I remember buying milk well in date, and having it in my quite cold fridge and it was still OK several days after the date.

However if I had bought it on the day of the use by it would not have lasted as long. In my tesco the fridges are not very cold, straight off the shelf it is not cold enough for me to drink as I like. So they will estimate dates when poorly stored like this.

tallaghtfornia

Rule of thumb guys..

Always take from the back of the fridge

ScouseMouse

Which increases wastage and increases prices.!

P. Breathnach

superscouse wrote: »

Which increases wastage and increases prices.!

Fair point. I don't root out long-dated stock if I am buying something that I intend to use fairly soon after purchase. It's a bit pointless.

For a wide range of foodstuffs (but not, for important examples, poultry or fish) I am fairly relaxed about sell-by or use-by dates. I trust my eye, my hands, and particularly my nose to tell me whether I want to consume something or bin it.

looksee

(quavery voice) I remember when there were no use by dates, you just used your common sense.

If milk looks and smells ok, its ok. If is curdled you could make cottage cheese with it, or use it in brown bread. If it has gone a weird colour or has mould then probably best to chuck it

I always find the local shop milk goes off within a couple of days, whereas supermarket milk (same brand) will sit a week in the fridge. I have in the past seen the milk van outside the local shop overnight even in summer, that doesn't seem to happen any more, but the milk doesn't last.

coylemj

looksee wrote: »

(quavery voice) I remember when there were no use by dates, you just used your common sense.

Packaged milk always had at least the day of the week embossed on the foil cap or stamped on the carton. It wasn't a 'best before' day, it was the day of the week the milk was intended to be sold.

Monday evening and Tuesday morning milk was collected from the farmer by dairy trucks, brought to the dairy where it was pasteurised and bottled on Tuesday afternoon. It was then delivered in crates of bottles or cartons to distribution depots on Tuesday evening, kept overnight in large fridges and delivered to the shops by the local agent on Wednesday morning with 'Wed' stamped on each pint.

By lunchtime Thursday the cream would have hardened and the milk would refuse to come out, hence the day of the week on which it was intended to be sold was all you needed to know. Homogenisation gave milk a much longer shelf life, that's when they started to stamp a date on the cartons.