That programme was a complete hatchet job and their retail expert was a joke.
Do some research into who he worked for before.
Fruit and veg should be bought by look feel and smell.
The same applies to all retailers, there are good and bad practices in them all.

That program was awful. There shouldn't even be sell by dates on fruit and veg. If it looks fine, feels fine, smells fine, it IS fine. Look at the produce yourself and decide whether you want to buy it or not, don't make your mind up from a label.

Essentially what that program was advocating was more needless waste. Really unethical.

The researcher in that program suggested Aldi codes are best before dates, which is why he was so "shocked" to find out of date stock. They are in fact production dates (Aldi appears to stamp their produce one week ahead of Lidl). Fruit and Veg does not need an expiry date - storage conditions will dictate how long it's good for.

After seeing the Channel 4 Dispatches program about Aldi and their sell by dates for fruit and veg being weeks over and still on the shelves, i will no longer be buying any from there.

From store opening leaflet

After seeing the Channel 4 Dispatches program about Aldi and their sell by dates for fruit and veg being weeks over and still on the shelves, i will no longer be buying any from there.

Very hard to see a sell by date on these. Aldi don't put dates on like other supermarkets. I found mouldy tomatoes when I opened the bag at home last week.

I wonder how old this stock is ??

http://www.cheapeats.ie/2012/10/09/lidl-and-aldis-mysterious-best-before-dates-on-fruit-and-veg/

and to work out the week number.....
http://www.epochconverter.com/epoch/weeknumbers.php

Good deal, but with these deals being posted increasingly early on this site, by the time they are available I've forgotten about them and miss them

Thanks for posting the week number link, very useful.

Not much logic in your thought process. The programme, if you could call it that, was about Aldi, so why include Lidl? You'd be as well including Tesco, Asda, Sainsburys, Waitrose, Morrisons etc etc etc. And, for the record, I've never seen anything like they showed in my local Aldi (or Lidl). I wonder how many plants they used before they got what they wanted? You've got to remember that they set out to make a programme then go digging till they get enough to "prove" their point.

All I can say the moaners have never seen some of the out of date and rotten food in my Sainsbury's.
Have any of you thought the programme deliberately went out to find the worst ones out there?
All supermarket's have badly run individual stores

Yes, all supermarkets are probably doing the same tricks.

Yes you should feel your food, and judge it yourself.

My issue is the fact the purposely make it difficult for you to see the date, for one reason, to deceive you. If you went to any other supermarket and saw something with todays date on, you wouldn't buy it. With Aldi, I bet you do that all the time without knowing.

Swedes are 39p each in the Co-op at the moment if you can't wait until the 19th for one!

The researcher in that program suggested Aldi codes are best before dates, which is why he was so "shocked" to find out of date stock. They are in fact production dates (Aldi appears to stamp their produce one week ahead of Lidl). Fruit and Veg does not need an expiry date - storage conditions will dictate how long it's good for.

I agree, Fruit & Veg SHOULDN'T have Sell by dates. Each consumer should use the traditional "look, feel and smell" criteria. Who is to say an Avocado is no longer safe to eat in 3 days time? I know especially during winter months, fruits take longer to "ripen at home" and dates on fruit & Veg are subjective.

Also not shopping anymore at a particular supermarket based on 1 category (Fruit & Veg) out of dozens of categories supermarkets stock these days seems quite a narrow view. Its like saying I won't even consider buying a Ford car because I don't like the Ford badge they stick on the boot of the car but everything else is ok about it.

Haven't bought Aldi veg for years because of it not lasting more than a day. Now I know why this Is most definitely cold for me. Sorry.

I haven't bought it for a couple of years because it never lasted more than a day. I go with the view of it looks and feels ok then carry on but it never did after a day so binned it. Waste of money. Whilst yes they fixed it to give you the best bits of moaning I do believe they aren't very far off the mark from my own experiences.

I agree in the past F&V was a problem in Aldi stores,never lasted long :disappointed:

In the last year a revamp of the area and stock handling in transport has solved this :smiley:

I have to admit that I found that the fruit and vegetables did not last as they should, so stopped buying from Aldi. I saw the programme and it also explained why there were long lines at the till and why staff hustled you through. As someone at the time who found it difficult to stand for overlong and took a little longer to load my basket, I felt quite stressed at times, as I felt I was taking too long with things for the staff. I feel sorry for the staff if they are under such pressure.

Not the best 6 .I think Aldi are not as progressly price conscious as they were.

I wish they would put dates on the fruit and veg !! I bet if they did it would be a short date ... I brought oranges last week and they felt to soft but I didn't know if that's what it was ment to feel like because you get different types of oranges , peeled one and it had gone small inside and dry , then 2 days after they had mould growing on them !!

OH won a competition and the prize was 4 'veggie boxes' from Riverford, which we expected would be better quality than low price stuff from discounters, but they delivered mouldy fruit, soft bendy root veg, mushy florets, and maggot infested peppers.

Like many gardeners, we grow loads of our own fruit and veg and the short best before dates in shops seems ridiculous considering our own potatoes, garlic, onions, apples, pears, marrows, squashes, etc. are harvested between late summer to late autumn and they'll last until the following spring, and that's without the benefit of commercial temperature controlled storage where they also adjust the gas proportions in the air around them. The last of my polytunnel tomatoes picked a bit orangey the day before the first hard frost that'll get in tunnels will be ripe/eatable weeks later, much later than any dates on commercial toms.

If you're a homebrewer and buy Bentonite (wine finings) it will have a use by date on, despite it being a natural mineral dug from the ground and formed millions of years ago!

I bought some Belgian buns and they were out of date by 5 days

How many people have been to their local markets and not bought the fruit and veg because there wasn't a best before date? :wink:

been shopping at aldi for years, love the shop xxxxxxxx
check out the pork shoulder joints, four pounds each, the ones in Tesco are absolutely manky
and double the price, heat added c4 is a joke sensationalism bye x
ps ........... I am an accomplished chef and love there veg xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Dispatches program last week. Complete waste of air time I believe the guy who did the digging to put Aldi in a bad light worked for Waitrose in the past, that says it all. F&V don't need sell by dates, Shopped at Aldi for at least 15 years and I am still alive and kicking. M.C.

Most of the fruit is pack and much difficult to feel and smell. And why should we need to do this? Just because Aldi offers cheaper prices they should not allowed to cut corners. All other supermarkets do mention dates for fairness and now many are beating prices as well.

I've been in a branch of one of the major supermarkets when they opened loads of packs of courgettes that had reached their 'best before' date and tipped them into their loose courgettes that didn't have any such date displayed.

The same store where I pointed out that all the ends of their marrows had been 'frosted' presumably by too cold storage, but they left them to rot on the shelf.