UK: Use by dates - which consumer are you?

New research from IGD's Consumer Watch series investigates consumers' views on food safety. One element of this is how they use expiry dates.

In the group discussions people told us that they followed use by/best before dates in one of five ways. We then asked 1,000 people which of these five ways they followed to see how this behaviour varied nationally.

• Strict Followers: 44% of people said that they "never ate anything past the use by/best before date." They were most likely to be young women (under 34 years) with no full or part-time job, from the less affluent social classes (DE), with at least three children and living either in the north of England or Wales.
• Advice Seekers: 24% said they "usually followed the use by/best before date rather than their own judgement." They were typically the wealthier consumers, (from the AB social classes), over 35 years of age and lived in relatively small households (4 people or less) in the south of England.
• Rough Guide: 22% said they "checked the use by/best before date as a guide only, but if it looked and smelt okay, they were usually happy to eat it." These people had few stereotypical traits other than they were very likely to work full time, rather than part time or not at all.
• Self-reliant: Only 5% of people said that they "rarely checked the use by/best before dates, preferring to use their own judgement as to whether the food was safe to eat." This behaviour was most common amongst men living in larger households, with 5 or more people.
• Selective: The final 5% said "they followed the use by/best before date on a few foods only, but otherwise preferred to use their own judgement." Although only a small group, they were more likely to be men or women over 44 years old, usually without any children at home and therefore living by themselves or with one other adult.

In addition, the research also found that:

• Tesco and Safeway customers were more likely than other shoppers to be advice seekers with 33% and 30% respectively falling into this category compared to a national average of 24%.
• Sainsbury's customers seemed to be more confident than other shoppers in using their own judgement, with 28% of them saying they used the dates as a rough guide only.
• Asda shoppers were most likely to strictly follow the guidelines, with 50% of them compared to only 38% of Tesco shoppers using dates in this way. But they were also twice as likely to use the dates on selective food only, for example meat or chilled foods, with 10% of their customers doing this compared to a national average of 5%.

Anna Dawson, Consumer Research Manager at IGD said, "This suggests that 90% of the population use expiry dates to help maintain food safety at home. Almost half the population relies totally on expiry dates and a further quarter prefer to trust the dates ahead of their own judgement. We also found that however people use the expiry dates, every group was confident about the overall safety of food. The research indicated that three-quarters (76%) of consumers are relatively to very confident about the safety of food."

For further information please contact Jane Whiteley, Tel: 01923 851917, mobile 07802 437579, Jane Beard, Tel: 01923 851910, mobile 07770 640448 or Catherine Ellwood, Tel: 01923 857141.

EDITORS' NOTES

1. IGD is the leading research and education organisation for the food and grocery industry. Its membership is drawn from the total grocery supply chain, including retail, manufacturing, wholesale, distribution, catering, packaging companies and primary producers. IGD also has close links with consumer organisations.
2. Visit the IGD website at www.igd.com
3. Consumer Watch is a bi-monthly report examining consumer attitudes to food issues. It is available from IGD at £400 for non-members and £300 for members for the full set. Please contact IGD on 01923 851925 or e-mail: michelle.jarman@igd.com, alternatively, order on line at igd.com
4. Coming soon from Consumer Watch - views on Consumer Choice (December).