A decision by Morrisons to scrap the ‘use by’ dates on its fresh milk and encourage people to use a sniff test instead sparked lively discussion in January. WRAP’s communications around this move were challenged by CFA’s Karin Goodburn, who, concerned that people may use this method for checking other food types, questioned the clarity of the messaging. She noted that the sniffing approach would not be at all appropriate to unpasteurised milk as it has gone through no risk reduction process. Morrisons’ intention is to reduce the amount of milk wasted, so they are retaining the date of production on bottles but leaving it to the user to assess freshness.
The debate around the issue prompted comments from the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Food Standards Scotland. The FSA told the BBC that: “When dealing with food generally, sniffing is not an appropriate safety test, especially with products that could cause food poisoning.