Is it just my imagination, or is the food industry practice of labelling use by dates as illegibly as possible ie dark green on black (Cerebos), white fine font on pale blue or pink (Liddells) etc, and using print that rubs off when touched steadily increasing?
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The worst are the ones on fresh produce in cellophane wrapping which are often almost impossible to find letalone actually read.
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Mmmm,. shows real faith in the product when the use by date disappears before the product has a chance to expire. But having to search so hard to find it, and even harder to read it [recently been inflicted with reading glasses, and of course I don’t take them shopping] is such a turn off, I won’t buy.
I recently bought a box of 4 yoghurts, pleased to see the use by was on the carton and the product - a few years ago I had to write it on the lids myself.
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One thing that concerns me is that a lot of use by dates for items like dips, hommus etc are printed on a loose dust cover. What if a naughty company were to replace those showing out of date with another in date??
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Yep, just like vanishing receipts, vanishing use by dates are quite a problem - especially on plastic packaging.
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For any labels including useby/best before dates, the need to meet the FSANZ sets food labelling standards in the Food Standards Code.
There are legibility requirements, see
https://www.foodstandards.gov.au/consumer/labelling/truth/Pages/default.aspx
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And these are of course rigidly policed and observed? Yeah, right!
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If consumers report problems we might be surprised, although I would not hold my breath.
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I bought 2 packs of fresh Fantastic noodles at our local Coles yesterday.
I finally found the dates in the middle of the back of the packs. and after I returned home, my wife tried to find them.
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Expiry dates on pharmaceuticals are a major issue too.
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Sure is and usually covered by the pharmacy label
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I found a bottle of yoghurt last week that must have slipped in the conveyor belt - the use by date was so squashed it was just a blob.
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