How consumers think about “use by” and “best before” for yoghurt
Photo by Wesual Click on UnsplashIn April 2022 it was reported that the Co-op would be changing use-by dates to best-before dates on all its own-brand yoghurts.
What will consumers make of this? Do they understand the difference between use by and best before, and which do they prefer? To find out, we conducted an exploratory online qualitative study with 50 buyers of yoghurt from around the UK.
We began by asking why they think yoghurt has a use by date. Most of the participants saw it as a food safety measure, although for some it was more of a guide.
“The product has to be eaten before that date and not after.”
“It begins to lose its quality after that date, and it is a legal requirement.”
“It tells you when the date will be that it is no longer fresh and cannot be eaten.”
“To help prevent you from eating food that has gone off and getting food poisoning.”
“To make sure that when you eat the product you are safer to do so without being at risk of the product making you ill.”
“To make sure people don’t get sick by eating food that is out of date.”
Of the 50 participants, 25 said that once a yoghurt has gone past its use by date they throw it away.
“It would need to be thrown away. The product wouldn’t be safe to eat”
“Throw them out, I don’t want to risk food poisoning.”
“Throw away in case it causes health issues and illness.”
However, 13 participants said they would check the product, whether smelling or tasting it, to judge whether it would still be alright to eat.
“I check by smell and sight. I will use food past use by date if it’s clearly still good to eat.”
“If they smell ok, I will still eat them as I believe the date is often a ruse to entice customers to purchase more items.”
“Smell and taste it and if I think OK, I will eat.”
We then asked participants what they understood by the term best before. 34 of the 50 participants said that it was a guide to the product regarding when it is at its best in terms of quality, taste, freshness or nutritional value.
“That the product is still good to use but may have
lost some of its nutrition or quality.”
“It means, its still ok to use after, but might not taste as good, or be less nutritious.”
“The food would typically taste better before that date. But it can still be eaten after according to preferences.”
And 19 of these 34 said that yoghurt can still be used after the best before date.
“The product will be better at its best before the date specified. After this, it may lose taste, the texture may not be the same etc.
That the product may not be of good quality after that date but is still safe to eat.
When it says best before it means you can use it for a few days after it just will go down in quality over time.”
Our research then asked participants if they were more likely to use yoghurt after a use by or best before date. 1 participant said use by, and 31 said best before, with the remaining 18 saying it makes no difference. So this suggests that best before leads to less wastage.
Finally, we asked whether participants actually preferred use by, best before or either. 22 said they preferred best before, 19 said either, and 9 said use by. Although we have to be careful about statistics with a sample size of 50, this suggests Co-op's move towards best before does have consumer support.