Diet Chef past sell by date
- Thread starter BurlyBeaR
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I would assume they are just the stock packets they have to show on air and not what they send out.
madaunty
Quietly, Very Confused
Whilst I generally prefer to sit on the fence and not get embroiled in any controversy, this is the second time today I've seen on here posters writing "Use By Date" when on both occasions (the other was the Easiyo thread), it should have been "Best Before Date" The two are not the same.
Best Before literally means that.
And more often than not it will be perfectly edible long after that date - though, granted a dried out cake ain't that great without a cup of tea to wash it down.
Whilst it does not excuse Q selling stuff over the Best Before Date, which does not inspire confidence in their quality control (or lack off) I don't believe it actually has any real meaning in food retailing law.
In fact, was very grateful to pick up some boxes of 15 mixed sachets of Easiyo from one of the outlets about Sept time last year (BB Oct 11) for £4.99 a box!
Have been using them since with no issues at all. Only 3 sachets left, so am gonna have to start forking out full price for them again soon.
Weathergirl
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Agreed, Madaunty but yougurt by it's very nature is just sour milk so in it's heavily processed EasiYo state I'm not surprised it's absolutely fine to eat. However given the price QVC ask for their food items you would expect to have items well within "date" being delivered to customers. Hopefully that was just their promo picture.
S
Spooky
Guest Shopper
yuck alert!! - well I have just spent the whole night in the bathroom, either on the loo or being sick. I ate a ready made meal yesterday which was the 10th but the meal was dated the 7th, I thought oh its just a few days and it certainly looked and smelt ok. However, at about 10pm I started to feel very nauseaous, and then my sudden newfound love of Mr Toilette ensued. I couldn't afford to just throw the meal away plus I felt it was ok but my lesson has been well and truly learnt.
And that meal was only £3.99 from a supermarket, not £100+ on Diet Chef. Seeing out of date dates on a sales presentation for food they are all raving over just doesn't give that "ooh I must try" appeal to me. I expect it is only the demo food but even so it just give you that want somehow. And I'd be utterly livid if it arrived like it.
And that meal was only £3.99 from a supermarket, not £100+ on Diet Chef. Seeing out of date dates on a sales presentation for food they are all raving over just doesn't give that "ooh I must try" appeal to me. I expect it is only the demo food but even so it just give you that want somehow. And I'd be utterly livid if it arrived like it.
Oh dear. Hope you are feeling better, Spooky.
Just to echo madaunty and not to excuse qvc, was the meal you ate, Spooky, a fresh ready meal with a use by date? I use by date means just that. But diet chef food isn't fresh, it is like tinned but in a pouch and there is no problem if it is after its best before date. As I say I don't want to excuse qvc, but it would be fine say for them to sell these products in clearance if they pointed it out. It really is worth knowing the difference between the best before and use by dates because so much food is wasted. The only exception are eggs which have a best before date but which should be treated as use by.
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Just to echo madaunty and not to excuse qvc, was the meal you ate, Spooky, a fresh ready meal with a use by date? I use by date means just that. But diet chef food isn't fresh, it is like tinned but in a pouch and there is no problem if it is after its best before date. As I say I don't want to excuse qvc, but it would be fine say for them to sell these products in clearance if they pointed it out. It really is worth knowing the difference between the best before and use by dates because so much food is wasted. The only exception are eggs which have a best before date but which should be treated as use by.
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i have to say though the out of date yoghurt was 4.99 and dried but i would not want to pay full price for something outside its sell by date.
bought a family size pack of basic biscuits 4 packs for £1.00 and the sell by date is saying jan 2013. can you imagine how long something has been laying around in a warehouse if the sell by date has expired?
bought a family size pack of basic biscuits 4 packs for £1.00 and the sell by date is saying jan 2013. can you imagine how long something has been laying around in a warehouse if the sell by date has expired?
stratobuddy
Registered Shopper
Oh dear, this has given me serious food for thought (no pun intended).
I came home 2 days ago after 5 days away to find that my power had tripped out, and everything in the freezer had thawed out, with a pool of water on the floor of melted ice from inside it.
My quandary is, there is about £300 worth of food inside it, which has now refrozen. It is only 1/2 insured, and my insurers have said that if I claim for it my premium will go up.
I can't afford to throw away £300 of food, but don't want to be ill either.
I've decided to be "sensible" and only eat some of the food, particularly those that can be thoroughly cooked, so will throw away items like cream and cooked meat eg sliced beef, chicken and ham for sandwiches.
Yesterday I ate some well-boiled green beans and a packet of microwave curry chicken with rice, but threw away the rice as I've heard that heating it does NOT destroy a bug specific to rice. Instead of heating the curry in the microwave, I boiled it in a saucepan for 10 minutes.
I seem to have survived this so far. I expect you will tell me to ditch it all, but do you have any alternative advice?
I came home 2 days ago after 5 days away to find that my power had tripped out, and everything in the freezer had thawed out, with a pool of water on the floor of melted ice from inside it.
My quandary is, there is about £300 worth of food inside it, which has now refrozen. It is only 1/2 insured, and my insurers have said that if I claim for it my premium will go up.
I can't afford to throw away £300 of food, but don't want to be ill either.
I've decided to be "sensible" and only eat some of the food, particularly those that can be thoroughly cooked, so will throw away items like cream and cooked meat eg sliced beef, chicken and ham for sandwiches.
Yesterday I ate some well-boiled green beans and a packet of microwave curry chicken with rice, but threw away the rice as I've heard that heating it does NOT destroy a bug specific to rice. Instead of heating the curry in the microwave, I boiled it in a saucepan for 10 minutes.
I seem to have survived this so far. I expect you will tell me to ditch it all, but do you have any alternative advice?
S
Spooky
Guest Shopper
Hi Pudnpie, my meal was a fresh meal (chicken, cheese sauce and potato chunks), it was my totally fault as it said "Use By" 7th May and I chose to eat it on the 10th, but it was put in the fridge within half an hour of purchase and had remained there ever since and it looked and smelt perfectly normal. But it is 100% my fault for risking it.
I've never seen Diet Chef before and if you say it isn't fresh and is equivalent to pouch or tinned food, then goodness how long has that been knocking around then if it is showing up as being out of date - normally food like that has a really long life on it, usually well into 2013. Unless I suppose where its expensive, over £100 a kit, they always use the same demo items cause it would be too expensive to rotate it constantly. Either way its put me off.
I've never seen Diet Chef before and if you say it isn't fresh and is equivalent to pouch or tinned food, then goodness how long has that been knocking around then if it is showing up as being out of date - normally food like that has a really long life on it, usually well into 2013. Unless I suppose where its expensive, over £100 a kit, they always use the same demo items cause it would be too expensive to rotate it constantly. Either way its put me off.
S
Spooky
Guest Shopper
Hi Stratobuddy, (totally disregarding my food blip last night!! cause normally I am quite sensible LOL) if it was me I would go on the worse case scenario and assume that the freezer failed on the day you left, therefore assume food was defrosting for 5+ days, please don't just hope it failed the day before you got home, go by the worse case scenario. The old wives tale is that if you don't open the door after "very short term" power cuts, so as not to release any residual cold, then the food "may" be ok. But for me, last night excluded, its just not worth it as it was all totally defrosted and sitting in puddles of water, so be super douper conscious. Anything like seafood ie prawns etc BIN, anything totally ruined ie ice cream etc BIN, anything meatwise, chops, joints, burgers etc BIN. Anything like cream or gateaus with cream BIN. But I would think things like bread, pastry, empty pizza bases, vol au vant cases etc should be ok for one big cook up. Do not cook and then refreeze anything. If it was me I think I would just bin everything though to be on the safe side.
The last time I claimed for freezer loss was about 5 years and then my insurance company let you put in a full claim for everything but they then took an excess from the claim value so its a real bummer if your say yours they will only let you claim for half the content value, but then presumably you don't have to then lose a policy excess value tho?
The last time I claimed for freezer loss was about 5 years and then my insurance company let you put in a full claim for everything but they then took an excess from the claim value so its a real bummer if your say yours they will only let you claim for half the content value, but then presumably you don't have to then lose a policy excess value tho?
ArtDeco
Registered Shopper
I did a bit of research on this recently as I had heard the same thing but apparantly the issue is in the amount of time that rice is left to cool when first cooked before being chilled. The spores that form within rice grow more quickly when left at room temperature than other foods. If cooked rice is cooled very quickly, preferably within an hour, then chilled, then reheated properly the risk of food poisoning is lowered. HTH: http://www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/can-reh...oisoning.aspx?CategoryID=51&SubCategoryID=215
Weathergirl
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Home contents insurance? Depends on the value I guess but mine covers up to 500 quid of food in the freezer
Weathergirl
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Sorry Strat you checked it I see now. Oopsy
I ordered DietChef TSV last summer. It was delivered from their warehouse not Q. So I think the packets Q display are old props. I was so ill, I went to the doctor who told me to stop the programme. It's a GI? Diet but with my immune illness and low blood sugar/pressure etc., I felt 'loopy'. Called Q to pick-up remainder and it was. But second month's delivery arrived which I refused. I was out £180 x 2 shipments, for a month while DC and Q got their acts together and refunded me the £360. The meals are too spicy for my taste. And the 'hamper' they refer to is just a big cardboard box but they couldn't call it that now, could they?
stratobuddy
Registered Shopper
When I checked my house insurance, I discovered that my freezer contents were covered for a weird amount of £169!
When I first checked the freezer, I felt a Magnum ice lolly to check it, and it felt firm and hard, so I was relieved as I have about 40 of them!!
I decided to try it, took it out of the packet, held it by the handle, which immediately came off, leaving the hard chocolate shell almost intact and spattering liquid ice cream everywhere!!!
I appreciate the advice. I have quite a lot of meat in the freezer such as pork loins and chicken breasts.
I realise the dangers, but as a mere male I would have thought that THOROUGHLY cooking the meat at high temperature (frying) would kill any bugs.
PS from the programmes recorded on my video recorder, I have deduced that the power was off for 4 days.
When I first checked the freezer, I felt a Magnum ice lolly to check it, and it felt firm and hard, so I was relieved as I have about 40 of them!!
I decided to try it, took it out of the packet, held it by the handle, which immediately came off, leaving the hard chocolate shell almost intact and spattering liquid ice cream everywhere!!!
I appreciate the advice. I have quite a lot of meat in the freezer such as pork loins and chicken breasts.
I realise the dangers, but as a mere male I would have thought that THOROUGHLY cooking the meat at high temperature (frying) would kill any bugs.
PS from the programmes recorded on my video recorder, I have deduced that the power was off for 4 days.
stratobuddy
Registered Shopper
Thanks for the link, very interesting. I'm glad I didn't eat the rice now!
Brissles
Registered Shopper
Years ago Grans and Mums went with their 'nose' due to lack of fridges - and cut off the mouldy bits of cheese and bread (I still do) - but then there were far less ready meals about to be contaminated, and everything was cooked fresh every day. The only cream I remember came out of a tin, so lasted years in a cupboard !
I think it largely depends on your own constitution. I have Lupus so my immune system is vulnerable and therefore dont take chances with food, and what my Mum would have considered 'safe' enough to eat, I dont.
I think it largely depends on your own constitution. I have Lupus so my immune system is vulnerable and therefore dont take chances with food, and what my Mum would have considered 'safe' enough to eat, I dont.
My mom went away for about 5 days and somehow I managed to turn the freezer off (she had asked me to turn the fridge off, big mistake !!!!!!) it was in the summer, although summer would be done under the trades description act, she got home and the smell meet her as she walked in the door, nothing saved all binned, but I was forgiven, just !!!!!!
stratobuddy
Registered Shopper
I am just about to have cheese on toast.
The cheese was in the freezer, but I am not worried about eating that as it doesn't need to be kept frozen.
The bread was also in the freezer, but if it looks OK I will try it, as that also doesn't need freezing except for long term storage. BTW I find that if I don't freeze it (a standard sliced loaf) it is mouldy by the time I get half way through it.
The cheese was in the freezer, but I am not worried about eating that as it doesn't need to be kept frozen.
The bread was also in the freezer, but if it looks OK I will try it, as that also doesn't need freezing except for long term storage. BTW I find that if I don't freeze it (a standard sliced loaf) it is mouldy by the time I get half way through it.
susie59
Registered Shopper
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The problem I have is that my first degree was in medical microbiology and I worked in public health labs for many years - the things I have read/seen have made me somewhat paranoid when it comes to out of date food (use by that is, not best before)!!
Personally I wouldn't take a chance on defrosted food that re-freezes or food past it's date. The problem is that some food poisoning is caused not by the bacteria themselves but by the toxins they release into the food as they grow and therefore cooking is not going to make a difference. Other food poisoning is caused by bacteria that form spores which can withstand an hour's boiling and still grow. High levels of bacteria can also cause you problems but would not necessarily cause obvious spoilage in the food item.
Dairy products and creamy type sauces are notorious for food poisoning so a food past it's date that's in a creamy sauce I wouldn't touch with a barge pole!! Hope you are feeling better Spooky and StratoB I know it's painful money wise but what price your well being? xxx :sad::sad:
(PS referring to OP - It's only demo packets, I wouldn't worry unless the ones that arrive are the same!!)
Personally I wouldn't take a chance on defrosted food that re-freezes or food past it's date. The problem is that some food poisoning is caused not by the bacteria themselves but by the toxins they release into the food as they grow and therefore cooking is not going to make a difference. Other food poisoning is caused by bacteria that form spores which can withstand an hour's boiling and still grow. High levels of bacteria can also cause you problems but would not necessarily cause obvious spoilage in the food item.
Dairy products and creamy type sauces are notorious for food poisoning so a food past it's date that's in a creamy sauce I wouldn't touch with a barge pole!! Hope you are feeling better Spooky and StratoB I know it's painful money wise but what price your well being? xxx :sad::sad:
(PS referring to OP - It's only demo packets, I wouldn't worry unless the ones that arrive are the same!!)
