Are food manufactures dishonest ?

[Odsox]

Last night as part of our "clear out the freezer(and start again)" campaign, we had ice cream for pud. I remembered from earlier in the week when I had to tidy the larder that we had some ice cream topping left over, so I had some of that too.
Imagine my surprise (well maybe not) when I noticed that the best before date on the topping was August 2006, BUT imagine me being even more surprised when I read on the label "use within one month of opening"
This topping is made by a well known syrup manufacturer and the ingredients are probably 99% syrup (my estimate) with flavourings and caramel colouring. Now I also have a tin of pure syrup made by the same manufacturer and nowhere on the tin does it mention anything about using within one month of opening, so why does it say that on the squeezy bottle of ice cream topping ?
The 4 year old bottle that I have is perfectly OK, looks OK, tastes OK and lets face it with a sugar content that high there is no way it's going to "go off".
So why do they put that on the label ?
I bet there have been many half empty bottles thrown away, probably many thousands, by gullible people following the instructions to the letter, not wanting to poison their little ones with "gone off" syrup.
So, is this instruction intentionally written to sell more product or a genuine safety concern ?
Or am I an old cynic ?

[Graye]

I think they are led by fear of prosecution.

I have the same thing with more or less every packet of food I buy. Long gone has the sign which says "This product contains nuts". Now just about everything says "This product may contain nuts". Just to cover themselves in case someone with a nut allergy tries to sue them I suppose. All very well but I DO have the nut allergy and would rather have something more definite.

I understand honey found in Egyptian tombs is still edible. Bacteria can't breed in it. So how syrups and the like can "go off" is beyond belief. I've seen jams and such things in a friend's cupboard with a thick layer of what is apparently mould on the top. The friend in question just scrapes it off and he says the jam underneath is fine. He's still alive and kicking so presumably it's true!

[Green Aura]

It's all down to EU food regulations. Producers have, by law to put use by and/or use within info on just about everything these days - even tinned stuff.

I have the same issue with the cosmetics I make. They have to have the use within info - how do I know? Huge cosmetics companies have on-site microbiology facilities and so can test fairly precisely under any number of conditions. I have to guess, which means of course that I have to put much shorter dates on to make sure. I just hope that it doesn't put people off buying my stuff.

[Odsox]

It's all down to EU food regulations. Producers have, by law to put use by and/or use within info on just about everything these days - even tinned stuff

Yes OK, I understand that.
My point though is why does one product have "use within one month of opening" when a virtually identical product from the same company does not ?

[JulieSherris]

Tony - what a can of worms to question.......!

It seems that these manufacturers err on the side of caution with their BB dates, because of legal nuances, I guess.

In fact if you sit & think of all the things we do, or don't do now that our parents or grandparents did/didn't do, it's quite an eye opener....

I can remember, we used to get our milk delivered on a monday - it was usually 'off' by wednesday...... NOW, we get a 4-pinter from the shop & it has a 2 or 2 week use by date on it - I've always wondered about that....

I had a duck pate fetish when I was pregnant with my middle daughter - I'd be told NOT to eat it now....
My nan also used to take off the mould on preserves.... and it didn't kill us... she also used to cut the mouldy crusts off bread & still use it (I always thought she was being posh when I had my crusts cut off!) and then we eat mould in blue cheeses....

Hubby has just applied for a job in a beef & lamb production factory - fully automated, so that will keep him happy - but I'm dreading the scare stories if he gets it.... I've been put off caramel sweets for 9 years since he worked in a sweetie factory

[MuddyWitch]

To stay on thread...probably!

Nipping off thread for a minute;

Hubby has just applied for a job in a beef & lamb production factory - fully automated, so that will keep him happy - but I'm dreading the scare stories if he gets it.... I've been put off caramel sweets for 9 years since he worked in a sweetie factory

I worked at a cinema whilst a student & would NEVER buy popcorn in one again

MW

[the.fee.fairy]

I don't think i want to know! I love cinema popcorn!

[Millymollymandy]

I can remember, we used to get our milk delivered on a monday - it was usually 'off' by wednesday...... NOW, we get a 4-pinter from the shop & it has a 2 or 2 week use by date on it - I've always wondered about that....

Yeah me too!

I always keep things that say 'use within a week/month of opening' in the fridge and I've yet to see anything go off.

[Helsbells]

I always keep stuff past their use by/sell by date, I am sometimes cautious with meat though, but often each it a couple of days past the use by or after opeining dates.
I always go by does it smel alright? Does it look alright ? (taste a small bit) does it tast alright? If yes to at least two of these I will eat it!!

But having said that I dont think I am a very good judge of food being off or not. I once drank some orange juice that had started to ferment. My boyfriend tried it and was appauled! I was like "ooh that orange juice was a bit fizzy"

I wonder if the ice cream syrup had some extra ingredients in it that could perhaps go out of date sooner?

[Odsox]

I wonder if the ice cream syrup had some extra ingredients in it that could perhaps go out of date sooner?

The thing I have been trying to point out in my hamfisted way, is that a high concentration of sugar is a preservative, one of the four main preservatives that we use ... salt, vinegar and alcohol are the others.
So how could anything possibly go off in a month when it contains at least 99% sugar ?

[Helsbells]

Wat flavour is it? There must be something in the ingredients like if its chocolate flavour could it have lactose in it?

I dunno very strange, could just be that there is no explanation.

[JulieSherris]

Might be that they are lying...... to make you eat it quick & then go buy some more!

Send it up here, I'll test it for yas

[Flo]

Pray tell me why you are all so worried about sell by/use by dates?

Buy some food, eat it ALL up, then go buy some more

If you only buy what you are going to eat and refuse to shop again till it's all gone, then you should never have a problem

I admit to having moments when I should have done better but I very rarely get to the point of having vegetables going off.

At the moment I'm working my way to the back of the store cupboard and have no intention of going shopping except for fresh vegetables till I've cleared all the stores (or till I genuinely can't make any more meals out of what is there due to dearth of variety in the ingredients). Should be a couple of months at least.

[Jandra]

My thought on different messages for different packaging...
I suppose that with a screw top bottle they are going to assume people aren't using it up in one go. So they'll have to be warned that it can go off. With a can it's different: once you've opened it you really can't keep anything in it for any amount of time. It obviously isn't intended for that kind of use, so they don't need (by legislation, I presume) to put the warning on that.

I try to be sensible about products with a 'consume before' date. Syrup should be perfectly safe; pickles too. I do not eat anything mouldy. The mould threads go much farther into the produce than the naked eye can see and, frankly, I don't think it's safe to assume that if something doesn't make you sick right now, it must be harmless. Thinking tobacco, asbestos, radioactivity, sugar...

Jandra

[Odsox]

Wat flavour is it? There must be something in the ingredients like if its chocolate flavour could it have lactose in it?

I dunno very strange, could just be that there is no explanation.

It's toffee flavour and the ingredients listed on the bottle are ... syrup, flavouring & colour (caramel)