Original subtitles

AMY DRAKE: In our supermarkets,

our fridges and our cupboards,

there's a secret code few people really understand

but completely controls our lives.

I do find them a little bit confusing.

Er... Ooh. HE CHUCKLES

Some of us know them as "sell-by dates".

To others, they are "best before" or "use-by"s.

Some of us swear by them. Some of us ignore them.

On a loaf of bread, just cut off the mould.

Just toast it. It's fine.

But I eat food out the bin,

so I'm not sure I'm the best person to ask.

But what do they even mean?

And when should we just hold our noses and chow down?

In this programme, we're speaking to the experts

to find out the truth about these dates.

"Use-by" means "use-by", and that's it.

There's no wiggle room at all.

And we're gonna do it by sniffing whiffy milk...

That is the kind of thing that you can't un-smell.

..prodding minging mince...

It just looks like a mush. That means this is very far gone.

..and binning bad lettuce leaves.

I don't think that's a good idea to eat that.

Plus, we'll reveal the secret locations

where date labels can save you a packet on your weekly shop.

It's kind to the planet, it saves wastage,

and it saves you money. Why not?

This is Sell By Dates: Are They A Con?

There's a baffling amount of different date labels

printed on the foods we buy.

And which we need to follow and which are a complete con

has left many of us utterly bewildered.

I do find sell-by dates and use-by dates quite confusing.

A use-by date would mean exactly the same as a sell-by date

and best before date... to me.

I always struggle to remember which one's which,

which ones can I use straight away, and which ones...

"Oh, no, that's it. This is gone.

"It'll be dangerous if you carry on eating."

And whilst some of us are confused,

others are taking it into their own hands.

I tend not to take an awful lot of notice of when it says "best by"

because I know you've got a bit longer on that.

If it looks good, and it smells good,

and it tastes fine, why waste it?

So, what dates should we pay attention to?

Use-by dates you do not mess with.

If you ignore use-by dates with certain foods,

I mean, particularly, you know, meat or shellfish,

there is a chance you could get seriously ill.

Use-by dates are found on highly perishable foods.

So they can be found on chicken, mince

and even on ready-to-eat salads.

Consuming food past its use-by date

can lead to serious food-related illnesses,

caused by the likes of campylobacter, salmonella,

E. coli, norovirus and listeria.

Yet despite the dangers,

the Food Standards Agency claims a terrifying 50% of us

don't always check the use-by date on the packet

before eating the food inside.

I tell food has gone off by giving it a little whiff.

If it's got a bit of a smell to it,

then you think, "No, I'm not gonna risk that."

Does it look good? Is it still sealed in its container?

Does it still smell nice?

If it passes those tests, then it's usually all right.

But is it, though?

And what about food that's not past its use-by date

but hasn't been stored correctly?

How can we really tell if highly perishable foods,

such as beef, chicken and salad, is safe to eat?

Here's food scientist Dr Chris Clarke

with some top tips to spot festering food.

Use-by dates are essential

because it's not always possible to tell when food is safe to eat.

However, there are certain tests you can do in your own kitchen.

In front of Chris are mince beef, chicken and salad leaves,

all well within their use-by dates.

Next to them are some far less appetising blocks of mince

that are two and three weeks past the dates on their packets,

as well as some chicken and salad leaves

which are also both two weeks gone.

But what are the signs we should be looking out for?

The first way we can tell whether our meat is good

for din-dins or the bin-bins is...

..the colour test.

Now, with red meats, it contains something called myoglobin.

Myoglobin is a protein found in most meats

that help store oxygen in muscle tissues.

It's either cherry red,

if it's been exposed to little oxygen,

or a grey-brown colour,

if it's been exposed to lots of oxygen.

This generally means that it's older

and it's seen more time.

With poultry, it's a little bit different.

You've got a nice pink colour to start with,

and over time and exposure to oxygen,

things go a bit more white and grey.

Again, this means the chicken may be past its best.

And certainly not safe to eat.

Next...

it's the prod test.

When you push down on poultry,

you should find it has quite a firm and elastic texture.

It should spring back when you touch it.

However, older poultry should have more of a soft texture.

This is because the proteins have started to break down

and the elasticity is going,

which means it's certainly not OK to eat.

This is no spring chicken.

Clearly.

And what about the beef?

Now, gone-off meat will tend to have a bit of a shiny surface on it.

Kind of a sticky, gooey consistency,

where the structure's broken down slightly.

This is because bacteria and enzymes within the meat

have started to eat the proteins on the surface,

making a gungy mess.

For an extreme close-up of said gungy mess,

Dr Chris is using a microscopic camera.

Now, if we start off with this nice fresh mince here,

you find that the structure is nicely intact.

That means the proteins are all good

and there's not much deterioration happening.

Whereas, if we have a look over here at the aged mince,

we can see that that structure has very much broken down now.

And does not look very nice.

In fact, it's hard to tell any kind of structure at all.

It just looks like a mush.

That means this is very far gone.

And something you definitely don't want to be using

in your spag bol.

And finally, the sniff test.

Get a little bit of the odour from the food.

You'll find that if it's quite rancid,

you will smell it,

and that's because spoilage bacteria,

yeasts or moulds have already started to set in their work.

That means it's no longer acceptable to eat.

But be warned,

some bacteria, like listeria and salmonella,

don't produce any smell at all but could still make you very ill.

This means it could still have potentially devastating consequences

for you and your toilet.

TOILET FLUSHES

Charming!

But what about salad leaves? Surely they're harmless enough?

When it comes to salads,

you have to be very careful because it is difficult to tell.

Now, certain indicators are the salad might look shrunken,

less fresh, less crispy.

There might be a slight odour to it.

But the ultimate thing is mainly knowledge

about how long it's been out of the fridge.

If it's been out of the fridge for a long time,

there can be proliferation of bacteria that are very harmful.

Because of the way salad leaves are grown and processed,

it can be contaminated with bacteria

such as E. coli, salmonella and listeria,

all of which can multiply very quickly

when left un-refrigerated for long periods of time.

Therefore, if you know it's been out of the fridge,

even for a couple of hours, throw it away.

If you're in any doubt whatsoever, don't risk it.

And if it's past the use-by date, don't even think about it.

So it's pretty clear use-by dates are not a con.

They play a vital role in keeping us all safe.

But is it just us shoppers who benefit?

Use-by dates are there to certainly protect the consumer,

to make sure that they don't get any risk of food poisoning.

But also, they're to protect the food industry

because reputationally, they don't want the consumer to say,

"I've got food poisoning from your product."

If you then claim you've got food poisoning

because you ate this dodgy piece of chicken

or whatever it might be, well, was it beyond its use-by date?

In which case, "Not our fault, guv. It's your fault, the consumer."

Coming up...

Dr Chris exposes the myths about mould on your cheese.

What I need to do is some careful cutting.

And can our experts sniff out the fresh from the fetid

when it comes to milk?

A little bit cheesy, a little bit sock-y.

That is the kind of thing you can't un-smell.

AMY DRAKE: Date labels have been confusing British shoppers

for decades.

Which are a sham, and which are sound advice?

Date labelling on food is incredibly complicated.

For the simple reason most people don't understand what they mean.

We're increasingly being told to limit food waste,

to be a little bit more mindful about wasting food,

but we also don't wanna poison ourselves.

It's just very, very baffling.

But how on Earth did we get here?

When did date labels first start appearing on food,

and why did they come to be so confusing?

Well, if legend is to be believed,

it started across the pond in Chicago almost 100 years ago

with the most unlikely of trailblazers -

gangster Al Capone.

There is a rumour Al Capone and his brother are responsible

for date labelling in the US.

They owned huge labelling machines in the 1930s.

And the reason they owned huge labelling machines

was because, ahem, it was just after Prohibition

and they'd had the labelling machines

for all their bootleg alcohol.

But with Prohibition coming to an end,

they needed a new more above-board enterprise

to keep their factories afloat.

They lobbied hard with the Illinois state government

to put dates on milk.

Although some claim he had other more caring motives.

There's a legend that either a family member

or a friend of a friend got ill from consuming sour milk

and that was one of the things that prompted him to say,

"Right, you've got to have date labels on your milk, guys."

What a considerate gangster he was.

AS AL CAPONE: "Milk. Milk.

"Am I gonna get ill drinking this milk?"

There's the Valentine's Day Massacre on one hand,

but also, he's a food safety crusader on the other.

Unsurprisingly, here in good old Blighty,

the history of date-stamping food has far less illicit beginnings.

So, food date-labelling in the UK was introduced by Marks & Spencer's.

Real innovation.

They started off in the 1950s with putting dates on

purely for stock room rotation.

But it would be another 20 years before M&S introduced sell-by dates

to food available for us to buy in the store,

when in the early '70s,

they started printing date labels on individual packets.

But back then food safety wasn't exactly their main motivation.

They were mostly a clothing retailer,

and the food business just wasn't doing very well.

So sell-by dates were trialled

to help turn their food fortunes around,

hoping to convince shoppers

that they took standards extremely seriously.

What they really wanted to do was to say that St Michael,

as it was known then, was all about freshness.

So, the original sell-by date is a marketing ploy

to persuade consumers, "We've got fresh food. Come to us."

And that actually is the start of M&S's reputation

of being, you know, very high quality, super fresh.

You know, "We're a cut above the rest of the supermarkets."

Other supermarkets soon followed suit,

introducing sell-by dates to many of their products, too.

Then, in 1980,

following a directive by the European Council,

date labelling on most food in Britain became the law.

Member states were allowed to choose their own terminology,

and as British supermarkets were already using "sell-by",

the Government opted to stick to this

instead of the term "best before".

So, are sell-by dates a con?

Well, no, because they don't exist any more.

They're meaningless.

They're a date for the supermarkets to get rid of their food quickly.

They're not really a date for consumers.

And lots of anti-food-waste campaigners

realised this a long time ago

and they campaigned very hard to get rid of sell-by dates.

And it's a huge victory to them

that actually, you won't find sell-by dates in the UK any more.

Instead of "sell-by",

most supermarkets and food producers use "best before"

or "best before end"

as a marker of how fresh a product is.

So, why do we all still use the term "sell-by date"?

If you ask most people to talk through food dates,

they still, because from their childhood,

"sell-by" was the prominent date on the supermarket shelf.

They still refer to them as "sell-by dates",

and they're not sell-by dates.

And the very fact we refer to food date labellings

as "sell-by dates",

when there is no sell-by dates left in supermarkets,

is in itself a problem.

Because we're kind of trapped in the language of the 1970s

of making things look nice rather than, "Is this safe to eat?"

So sell-by dates are out, and best before dates are in.

But how many of us actually know what they are?

Best before?

Erm...

Not sure.

I do find them a little bit confusing

because best before dates doesn't always mean

that's when the product goes off, necessarily.

I just look for the date on the packets,

and that means one thing to me, pretty much when it's good to.

But what exactly is a best before date?

And is it significant or just a swizz?

A best before date is really an indicator

of the freshness and quality of the food that you're consuming.

If the best before date has passed,

there is a risk the texture could be affected.

There is a risk that the flavour might not be there.

It's an advice that you...

that the food might not be as high quality after this date.

It's got nothing to do with food safety.

Best before or best before end dates appear on a vast array of products,

including food in tins and jars,

dried foods, such as pasta and rice,

frozen produce,

and crisps, nuts and chocolate, to name a few.

I mean, the thing is, we've got rid of sell-by dates.

Great. Big victory for the battle against food waste.

But we've kind of almost replaced them with best before,

which has... comes with its own problems.

Because "best before", in a lot of consumers' minds,

think, "Oh, well, after that date, I've got to throw it away".

And who even decides

what the best before date should actually be?

There is no best before head office where these dates are made up.

In fact, it's up to the manufacturers to decide

what the best before dates are, depending on what the product is.

It's completely arbitrary.

And are the dates solely there to help us?

There is a truth that the supermarkets

and the food manufacturers benefit

from quite conservative best before dates.

There's all sorts of things,

particularly tinned goods and some jarred and bottled goods,

that would be fine with a ten-year best before date.

And the food industry doesn't do it cos they think,

"Oh, people will think it's not very natural."

And also, it would stop us going back to buy some more,

cos it would just always,

"Oh, we've still got one at the back of the stock cupboard."

So, what needs to change?

They need to say, "Best before date can be ignored".

Or maybe it should be changed as, like, "Try and use before",

or "Might not be as crunchy after this date."

Ultimately, the truth is that best before dates are a guideline

rather than a rule.

And it's a guideline that often needs careful scrutiny

in the form of the sniff test.

So, obviously, there are real scientific complexities

to the sniff test.

I would, first of all, start off opening it up

and just put my nose into the top.

And then if it smells OK,

I might get my nose slightly further in if I can.

And then you need to confirm by... HE SNIFFS

..just really getting in there and giving it a gigantic sniff.

And then from there, you should know what you're up against.

But is the sniff test always reliable?

To help us find out, we've set our panel of experts a challenge.

With all dates removed and using just their sense of smell,

can they sniff out which of these three milk cartons

is still within its best before date,

which is a day over,

and which is a whopping two weeks past the date on the label?

It's time for milk roulette.

First up, bottle A.

It smells milky but perfectly OK.

I mean, it smells pretty fresh, yeah.

It just smells like milk.

To me, that smells absolutely fine.

I would gladly pour that on my breakfast cereal.

All are in agreement that bottle A is perfectly fresh

and safe to drink.

But what will they make of bottle B?

Hmm. SHE SNIFFS

That's an interesting one.

I'm a little bit dubious.

Ooh, yeah.

That's... That's gone. That has gone.

It just doesn't smell fresh.

A little bit cheesy, a little bit sock-y. Erm...

Yeah. That is... That is the kind of thing that...

you know, you can't un-smell.

Again, our panel are unanimous in that bottle B has seen better days.

But what about our final offering?

Well, that's bottle C.

HE SNIFFS Ooh!

Hmm.

This is an interesting one.

HE SNIFFS I think that one's gone as well.

That, to me, smells super fresh.

If I was betting, I'd say this is the freshest.

I'm not sure about this one. I...

I'm finding this quite tricky.

So uncertainty over bottle C's freshness, too.

But will they be right,

or will they be crying over spilt milk?

Well, the freshest of them all was A,

which our panel all got right,

as it was still well within its best before date.

They also got bottle B correct,

which was a milk-curdling two weeks past the date on the label.

But bottle C split the vote,

as it was just one day past its best before date.

So I got them right? SHE CHEERS

Yes!

OK. I thought this was even fresher.

OK. So I can't really tell the difference, yeah?

Genuinely embarrassingly happy that I got that right.

So for most of the panel,

the sniff test on milk did seem to work.

But would they still be prepared to use the milks

with the expired dates?

Although C has just gone past its best before date,

the sniff test was so similar to A,

I would definitely still be using it.

And I would see that you could still use it for several days.

But with bottle B,

it smelt suspicious enough that I might want to test it

before pouring it on to my cereal, or into my...

But equally, I'm not sure I would've known it was off.

And if you thought milk was hard to spot when its past its best,

where on Earth do you begin with other dairy products, like cheese?

For that, you need the eyeball test.

The likes of Stilton, Gorgonzola and Roquefort

are all proudly riddled with mould,

and we often pay a pretty penny for them.

But if there's mildew on the mozzarella

or fur on the feta,

the chances are it ends up in the bin.

So what's the deal?

When is mouldy cheese safe to eat, and when isn't it?

Here with some top tips on how to "brie" prepared... Sorry.

..it's food scientist, Dr Chris Clarke.

To start with, we should look at blue cheese

because that mould is there intentionally.

This means it doesn't produce any toxins

that could be potentially harmful to humans.

Mould is a type of fungus,

and there are over 100,000 species of them around the world.

But the one that is added to the likes of Stilton,

Gorgonzola and Roquefort,

commonly known as blue mould, is perfectly safe to eat.

As is the sort added to white cheeses

like Brie and Camembert.

What we often refer to as the rind is actually mould, too.

But what if it appears on other cheeses?

Soft cheeses like ricotta, cream cheese, things of that nature,

they're not supposed to contain any mould at all.

If you see it, it's likely throughout the entire cheese,

which means you should throw it away.

As this mould can cause nausea, stomach cramps,

diarrhoea and allergic reactions if consumed.

The same thing goes for any shredded,

crumbled or sliced cheese,

as this has a really big surface area

and means that any mould that's on it

has probably gone throughout.

But what about hard cheeses, like cheddar and Parmesan?

Hard cheeses are a slightly different story

because their structure stops mould from digging in too deep.

This means that we can actually cut some of the mould away

from hard cheeses, if we do it in the right places.

What I need to do is some careful cutting.

Dr Chris "care-Philly" starts trimming his cheese.

All right, yeah,

that joke's probably past its sell-by date.

Well, it would be, if they still existed.

By cutting away about an inch either side of the mould,

I should have removed any potential spoilage.

That should now be safe to eat.

All we need now is chutney.

And the crackers, grapes and red wine.

Coming up....

the shocking amount of food we chuck away

due to date label confusion...

Families like mine are literally throwing money in the bin.

..and the secret supermarkets selling out-of-date food

at bargain basement prices.

It's kind to the planet, it saves wastage,

and it saves you money.

Why not?

AMY DRAKE: When it comes to food date labels,

working out what's a sham and what's sound advice

can be more than a little confusing.

But flummoxed or not,

when these dates start nearing their expiration,

there's one inevitable outcome that puts us all in a better mood -

yellow sticker discounts.

The yellow sticker deal is an icon of British life.

There's nothing more thrilling

than finding something on the yellow sticker deal

at some unbelievably low price.

And, yeah, just feeling like you've won... won at life.

For the uninitiated,

yellow sticker, or "reduced to clear" labels,

are essentially price reductions supermarkets place on items of food

nearing their use-by or best before date.

And they've been exciting shoppers for decades.

I think yellow sticker labels are really good

because they can get you into food that you wouldn't normally buy.

You can have an incredible feast that you weren't anticipating,

and ultimately, who doesn't wanna get a bargain?

For many of us, they're the holy grail

of any trip to the shops.

But finding where exactly they are

can require some serious detective skills.

So, the problem with the yellow sticker deals

is they can be hard to track down,

especially if you don't know the supermarket.

Imagine that you're going on an adventure

and you've got to seek them out.

They're not gonna say, "Here we are."

You've got to get them, and that's a reward.

Some supermarkets with yellow stickers

put them out at the end of the day.

Some put them out at the beginning of the day.

And if you don't know the supermarkets,

it can be a bit of a chaotic hunt to try and get your bargain.

I know friends, nameless, who go at a certain time

because they absolutely know that what they want will be reduced

and they'll find it in the chilled cabinet.

So you've got to be savvy.

But with savviness comes risk.

With food this close to its expiry date,

and therefore, to going off, there's an inevitable downside.

The problem with yellow stickers, and indeed,

with any real bargain hunting, is it encourages...

It's a dopamine hit that the consumers get.

"Oh, my gosh! I've got a bargain.

"This is brilliant. I've saved money."

But you get home and you unpack all this stuff

and say, "Did you really want that?"

The goods are being reduced for a reason.

You could end up buying something and then never using it,

which is food waste.

So just don't be seduced that it's cheaper.

Just think, "What am I gonna do with it?"

and "When am I gonna cook with it?"

Because nobody wants to end up with a limp lettuce.

They most certainly do not.

But for those willing to live life on the edge

and take the yellow sticker gamble, what do we need to know?

When are they a money-saving win, and when they are a fetid food flop?

To help us find out,

we've set food content creator Gavin Wren a challenge,

to buy and eat nothing but yellow sticker food for five days.

Will he be able to spot the bargains from the bin fodder?

I don't normally go shopping just for yellow sticker foods.

I might buy some if I'm out shopping

and I see some reduced items.

However, it's normally a random selection,

so I might have to go to a few shops

to get everything I need for five days.

Precisely when yellow stickers are applied to products

varies from supermarket to supermarket.

So Gavin plans to visit all his local stores

to make sure he gets a variety of bargains.

Kicking things off, it's an early morning trip to Asda.

They put the bargains out first thing in the morning,

so I'm really excited to see what they've got.

But will these bargains actually be any good?

OK, well, I've got loads of stuff.

There was a lot of ready meals,

so that will see me through, I think.

I've got a load of dal,

which is something that I would normally eat anyway,

so I'm really happy with that.

There's quite a lot of carbohydrates.

So, these are, like, potato skins.

There was a few packs of those.

There was quite a lot of pasta bakes and pasta ready meals, too.

Again, lots of carbohydrate.

An impressive start,

if you're a fan of nearly-gone-off ready meals.

I think it's gonna be a little bit harder than I thought,

simply because there wasn't much variety.

But I'm still missing things like fresh fruit and veg

and also breakfast foods as well.

So I'll see if I can find some of those.

Next, Gavin visits Sainsbury's...

followed by Lidl...

and finally Tesco.

And after a diligent day delving the discount shelves,

Gavin has amassed quite the hodgepodge

of treats and titbits,

costing a grand total of £62.07p.

That's about £45 less

than he'd usually spend on his weekly shop.

But working out how to store and eat this motley mix

before it goes off is another story.

There are a couple of things that I regret slightly

cos I'd got a sort of bargain panic when everything was reduced

and I needed to make sure I'd got enough food.

So I bought these little salmon slices

that need to be eaten today.

I also bought this hummus, which was a really good reduction.

However, it's got a use-by date of today and I can't freeze it,

which means I've got to eat it by the end of tonight.

I also bought this rice that's got a use-by date of today,

but I can have that with my Thai curry

if I cook that tonight.

Which means I also have to have hummus with Thai curry and rice.

OK. Yeah, the wheels are coming off already.

We'll be back later to find out how Gavin gets on.

But not all food nearing its expiry date ends up

in the tummies of savvy shoppers.

A lot, sadly, goes straight in the bin,

which is causing concern for many.

Yeah, I do worry about wasting food a little bit.

Oh, definitely. I definitely worry about wasting food.

I think, sometimes, we buy things thinking we'll use them in the week,

and then we don't.

It's so hard if you're cooking to a recipe

and it wants a particular amount.

You buy a large amount and then leave the rest in the fridge

and you don't always have the time to use it.

And it seems our shoppers have a right to be concerned.

The UK produces a massive amount of food waste.

10.7 million tonnes of food waste.

And 60% of this is from us, the consumer.

In other words, the amount of food and drink we throw away

that could've been eaten

would fill 3,800 Olympic-sized swimming pools

or 95 Royal Albert Halls.

95 Royal Albert Halls?

That is mad.

And not only is all that waste harmful to the planet,

it can make a pretty big dent on our pockets, too.

So, you know, on top of the food waste,

there is also a financial wastage, too,

and a sort of average family of four are wasting around £1,000 a year.

Families like mine are literally throwing money in the bin.

So, could changing the way we think about food dates

help reduce this waste and increase our bank balance?

I do think that a lot of people are guilty of just taking

that best before label as, like, gospel.

Some people won't touch their food

if it's a second past its best before date.

The clock strikes midnight

and they think their food has to go in the bin.

The amount of edible food we throw away might be shocking,

but there is hope.

In Northamptonshire,

hidden away on an unsuspecting industrial estate

is a supermarket with an innovative, and for some, controversial plan

to fight the war on food waste.

This is Best Before It's Gone,

one of a number of secret supermarkets in the UK

specialising in purchasing food from major retailers and food producers

that's near to or past its best before date,

then selling them on to shoppers in the know at radically reduced rates.

Whilst it might not have the glossy store layout

of your local Waitrose, businesses like this

could hold the key to our burgeoning waste nightmare.

It's pot luck what might be in stock at any one time,

but the concept is attracting new shoppers from far and wide.

It appeals to anybody that wants to save money.

We have a vast array of customers,

right the way from mothers wishing to save money on the weekly shop

for their children,

all the way through to elderly people, pensioners, etc.

We also deliver to a guy locally

that has a three-million-pound house.

Well, they do say, "Look after the pennies

"and the pounds will look after themselves."

It works by offering customers the opportunity to order online

from a list of products currently available in this warehouse.

They can then have their food delivered to their homes

or opt to click and collect, just like regular shopper Susan.

I shop here because it helps spread my pension out.

I get to try exciting new things

I wouldn't necessarily buy in a supermarket,

because I wouldn't be able to afford them,

and it varies my menu.

Whilst buying near-to or out-of-date food

might not be everyone's cup of tea,

those who don't mind can find food on average 70% cheaper

than the recommended retail price in mainstream supermarkets.

The biggest savings I make is on chocolate, crisps,

soft drinks, pasta, noodles, sauces.

And it doesn't... It's all the stuff

that doesn't matter if it's past the sell-by date.

Each week, around 100 tonnes of food

that would otherwise be destined for landfill

is brought to the warehouse, ready to be resold at reduced prices,

and today, a bumper load has just been delivered.

So, we've just had our lorry go out and collect

from a major retailer in the UK.

There's 14 pallets of stock here coming in,

which will be sorted and available for sale later on today.

Dan hopes he'll be able to sell it all to his frugal fleet of shoppers,

but any that isn't bought in time won't go to waste either,

as it's taken away and turned into biomass fuel.

Well, I think more people should use businesses like this

because it saves the environment.

It's kind to the planet, it saves wastage, and it saves you money.

Why not?

Coming up... Dr Chris is back

with some top tips to keep your fruit and veg fresh.

Strange but true, if you keep your onions in tights,

you can help to keep them dry and ventilated.

And Gavin pushes his yellow sticker challenge to its limits.

Because this milk is now five days past its best before date,

it's really important I do a quick sniff test,

just to make sure that it's not gone bad.

AMY DRAKE: Earlier, we set food content writer Gavin

the challenge of juggling a diet of just yellow sticker food,

nearing the end of its use-by or best before date,

for a whole five days.

Gavin's allowed to use existing herbs, spices and condiments

already in his cupboard to add some flavour.

But buying anything new that doesn't have a yellow sticker on

is strictly off limits.

It's the start of the week, and already there's a dilemma.

It's day one, and I've already hit a small problem.

You see, I bought this bread, the best before date was yesterday,

and I want to eat this each day.

However, if I just keep this in the cupboard at room temperature,

it could easily go mouldy in the next few days.

So I thought, "I know what, I'll put it in the freezer."

But my freezer is literally full with ready meals.

I couldn't fit this in there if I tried.

So I'm going to have to eat some ready meals today

so I can put this in the freezer.

So I'm already having to juggle things simply to make this work.

But by day three, Gavin's a little more in his stride.

Every morning, I have to get the things out of the freezer

that I want to eat that day cos they need time to defrost.

So tonight, I'm gonna have a slow-cooked beef

with some potato wedges,

and I've still got some fennel and carrots in the fridge,

which I'm gonna then roast those,

and that's gonna make a really lovely dinner.

But before that, it's time for lunch.

I would say the main downside of this diet overall

is just the lack of choice.

I don't have much control over what food I actually buy.

Obviously, it was just down to what was in the shop on the day.

So I'm having to be quite creative with how I use things.

Like these asparagus really needs to be used up today,

otherwise, they might have gone off.

So putting them on a pizza isn't something I would normally do,

but I think that's quite a good idea.

So as long as you're a bit imaginative,

you can still work out ways to use things

and make sure they don't go off.

Mmm!

We'll find out later how Gavin gets on

with his haul of ever-deteriorating discount food.

Whether you buy yellow sticker items or not,

keeping fruit and veg fresh until you're ready to eat it

can be a bit of a nightmare.

In fact, British households cumulatively chuck

8.2 million shopping baskets' worth of fruit and vegetables in the bin

every year because it's deemed to have gone off

before there's time to use it.

So, is there anything we can be doing

to keep our five a day fresher for longer,

and avoid this shocking amount of waste?

Well, thankfully, there is, and we know just the man to fill us in.

It's Dr Chris, with some top tips to keep your greens garden-fresh.

The frustrating thing about fruit and veg

is that you only have a relatively short window

in which to consume them before they start to do something like this.

Which is often caused by something called ethylene.

Not your nan's friend from bingo but a gaseous hormone

which causes fruit and veg to ripen faster.

Lots of fruits contain ethylene, and its job, amongst other things,

is to control the aging process of that fruit.

The problem is, some fruits produce more ethylene than others.

Bananas in particular produce a lot of ethylene,

which means they can make other fruit ripen very quickly.

Often too quickly, because once it's fully ripe,

it's only a matter of time before it starts to decay.

So, what's the answer, Chris?

The key here is, take your bananas, put them somewhere else.

A simple yet ingenious solution.

Time for tip two.

If you want to extend the shelf life of celery,

then there's a simple trick.

Take your celery and wrap it in some aluminium foil.

Now, unlike plastic, this will help to keep out light

while helping to retain moisture but also letting ripening gases

that are produced to escape and stopping it going limp and floppy.

Saggy celery avoided, it's time for tip three.

Don't you hate it when your berries get all fuzzy?

Well, fortunately, there is a solution.

In fact, it's a solution of water and vinegar.

Three parts to one.

We mix them together.

And we make a nice acidic solution

that should kill off any microbes

or other organisms which might cause spoilage on your berries.

The only thing is you shouldn't leave them in there too long,

otherwise, they'll start to taste a bit like a chip shop.

Mmm, saveloy and strawberries. So, what's next?

Strange but true, if you keep your onions in tights,

you can help to keep them dry and ventilated.

That means as long as you put a knot between each onion...

..it should help them to last longer.

By putting them in tights,

it allows air to circulate around the onions,

carrying moisture away from the surface

that might otherwise allow bacteria or fungi to develop.

And just when you thought there wasn't any more room in your life

for more onion hacks, here's Chris with another.

Don't store your onions and your potatoes together,

otherwise, you'll end up with something that looks like this.

That's because, just like bananas,

onions also release high amounts of ethylene,

meaning other vegetables they're stored near

will ripen and eventually go off quicker than you'd like.

Keep your potatoes in a cool, dark place,

and that way, they should last a little bit longer.

And with your onions, don't forget your tights.

Back in East London,

Gavin's yellow sticker challenge is nearing its end.

For the last five days, he's been living life on the edge

by solely eating food purchased with a yellow sticker on it.

That's food that's been reduced in price

because it's nearing its use-by or best before date.

It's the morning of day five, which means I've got my last breakfast.

Because this milk is now five days past its best before date,

it's really important I do a quick sniff test

just to make sure that it's not gone bad.

I mean, it smells like milk.

I think that's good. Let's go for it.

Awesome!

It's a win for the milk,

but with all of the processed ready meals he's been eating,

it hasn't exactly been the healthiest.

As for nutrition, I've been tracking what I've been eating,

and things have changed quite a lot.

In fact, my fat intake has gone up.

I'm nearly... 40% of my diet now is fat, which is quite high,

and my carbohydrate intake has gone down.

Protein, I'm hitting it.

But despite the nutritional setback,

it seems there are plenty of positives.

I'm making my last meal now. I'm having some of this dal.

I bought three of these. I've only eaten one of them.

I've got some of the sourdough bread, froze it on day two,

still loads of that left.

I'm gonna have that with a bit of my soft cheese as well.

And then I've got one apple left. This is brilliant.

I've still got tons of food left in the freezer, too.

I could probably carry on for a few more days.

If I added a little bit more fresh fruit and veg,

if I went down the shops

and got a few more bargains that were things like, yeah,

vegetables, fruit, then I would be happy to do a few more days,

I reckon, which makes it really good value.

Gavin's yellow sticker shop at the start of the week

had already saved him £45 compared to his normal weekly spend.

But with plenty of food still left in the freezer,

he's even better off.

Oh!

With the challenge complete, time for some final thoughts.

There wasn't much food waste either. There are only two things. Two?

Two things that are going in the bin, which is the hummus...

It's got a use-by date, so I really couldn't safely eat that

after the day I bought it.

And I bought some bagged salad,

which I just simply never got round to eating.

And it's gone a bit soggy now,

so I don't think that's a good idea to eat that.

That's still quite a low level of food waste, which is fantastic.

However, the amount of packaging waste that I've had

has just shot up because everything I've eaten has been,

like, a ready meal, like this, in plastic packaging.

So my recycling bin is overflowing.

So, great for the pocket, perhaps not so great for the planet.

But is eating like this sustainable in the long-term?

You could probably do an entire weekly shop

just from yellow stickers.

Although, there are a few things that you might want every week,

like milk or eggs for instance,

that you can't rely on them being reduced.

But if you've got a little bit of flexibility in what you eat,

then, yeah, you could definitely do this.

So Gavin's saved a packet by chowing down

on food close to the best before or use-by date.

But at the end of the day, are these dates absolutely necessary

or a little bit of a con?

Dates on food are not a con.

They're information for the consumer,

and a use-by date is essential.

They're protecting the consumer.

They're saying that you could get food poisoning

if you eat this food after midnight on the use-by date.

But what about best before dates?

Best before dates are not a con.

They do have a role to play, but they're far too strict.

There are far too many products that say

you should eat them within a few weeks or a few months. No.

They're fine a year or two after they've been made.

So, in summary, use-by dates, you really shouldn't ignore.

But when it comes to all the rest, trust your eyes, ears,

nose and fingers, as not all mouldy food is made equal.

And if you're gonna live life close to the use-by date,

bear in mind it's a full-time job.

And above all, don't waste food.

Right, I'm off to eat some crisps

that were made three prime ministers ago.

Well, in that case, they should still be fresh as a daisy.