Stock Control

Stock Control

Most foods or ingredients we use in the shop are labelled with a “Best Before” or “Use By” date. There is a major difference between these dates:

Best Before:

This is put on food that will not become unsafe to eat if you keep it too long, but the eating quality may be affected. Examples are frozen food, dried food, tinned food or food in jars. It is good practice not to use food past a Best Before date, but if it does get used there is not a food safety risk but there may be quality issues.

Use By:

This is put on food, typically High Risk foods that will become less safe to eat the longer they are kept. It is illegal to sell these foods past their Use By date as they may be unsafe to eat.

Storage conditions

It is important food items are stored under the right conditions. Most foods will have this information on the packaging. Sometimes the storage instructions change once packaging is opened, for example tomato ketchup will usually say “Store in fridge once opened and use within x weeks” but it can be stored in ambient conditions until it is opened.

Good Practice for all food is:

• Cover all food items.
• Keep ready to eat and raw foods apart.
• Check dates (Use By/Best Before).
• Label with date if un-dated (e.g. Once frozen fish is defrosted).
• Store correctly.
• Put oldest stock at front or on top so it gets used first.
• Use in date order, oldest first.
• Clean storage areas regularly.
• Throw away out of date food.

A good way of marking food with a short shelf life is by using day labels:

Check food in storage regularly for signs of spoilage or damage to packaging that may affect quality or food safety, such as damaged tinned food, holes in potato sacks or damage to packaging on frozen foods.