Legalities of selling stuff after "Best Before" date?

kenmc · 14-03-2005 3:24pm #1

Hi,
there's an offlicence in Dundrum (won't mention it, but if you know Dundrum you probably know that there are not that many offies) which has been selling some belgian beer on "Special Offer" for the last couple of months (in fact I think it's more than just one brand of beer). And for the last couple of months this same beer has had a BBE of October 2004. Hence why it's on special offer, see.....
Now the thing is that there is no mention on the sign or whatever that the best before date is long since passed. It's only upon reading the small print that you will see this. I pretty much always check BBE dates anyway, hence I saw this and didn't buy it, although I was considering buying a case or 2 to put away given the price, till I saw this.
Anyway, does anyone know what the legalities of this are? I know it's not a "use by" or "display until", but surely the consumer is entitled to know before they buy this that it is past it's best???

rubadub · 14-03-2005 5:08pm

This is a british site
http://www.surreycc.gov.uk/sccwebsite/sccwspages.nsf/LookupWebPagesByTITLE_RTF/Food+-+Use+By+and+Best+Before+dates+for+retail+outlets?opendocument

basically saying it is ok. I thought it was too. Says they can be prosecuted it is long after the date. bit of a grey area.

but surely the consumer is entitled to know before they buy this that it is past it's best???

But they do know it, it is printed on it. Buyer beware...
If the shop was wiping off the BB date it may be a different story.

BB dates are calculated in worst case scenarios, bottle of beer left at 30C in direct sunlight may well be gone off my oct 2004, I would say those are safe.
Wheres the off licence and how much was it?

kenmc · 14-03-2005 5:45pm

rubadub wrote:

But they do know it, it is printed on it. Buyer beware...
If the shop was wiping off the BB date it may be a different story.

Maybe, but I would have thought that the buyer would be safe to assume that it is IN date unless specified otherwise. Would have thought that the onus would be on them to tell us rather than us to find out... I know there are loads of ppl who wouldn't bother looking at the date. agree buyer beware, but would be surprised if something like this should be allowed to be sold without fair warning.

BB dates are calculated in worst case scenarios, bottle of beer left at 30C in direct sunlight may well be gone off my oct 2004, I would say those are safe.
Wheres the off licence and how much was it?

Aye but see we don't know how/where they were stored.....
Deveneys dundrum crossroads is the shop in question. I have seen OOD stuff being sold in the one in rathmines, but they had a sign on them stating "Past the best before date". Waw Watou beer, 1.69 per bottle methinks...

rubadub · 15-03-2005 11:30am

kenmc wrote:

but would be surprised if something like this should be allowed to be sold without fair warning.

I know what you're saying but when you get into the non(common)sensical way the legal system works then the term "fair warning" would have to be defined, A sign of size X in font x,y or z, with colours o,q or r. Maybe the tiny print on the bottom of the bottle is enough (in court)

anyways, 1.69 is not that cheap, I'd buy cheap beer instead, plenty of acceptable stuff out there

kenmc · 15-03-2005 11:33am

for a whitebeer it is quite cheap though. 500 ml bottles. Where can you get cheaper than that????

Legalities of selling stuff after "Best Before" date?

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