Morrisons’ ‘Sniff’ Test as a Replacement for ‘Best Before’ Dates or How to manage your milk...

 

Morrisons’ ‘Sniff’ Test as a Replacement for ‘Best Before’ Dates – Pros, Cons and Caveats

Those of us ‘of a certain age’ will recognise the new ‘sniff’ test for milk announced in the media by Morrisons recently. Most of us came across it first as an impromptu indicator of milk quality during our late adolescence, when we left home for the first time and our food suddenly stopped appearing on the table as if by magic. Many of us will no doubt have continued to use it ever since. It is certainly not a new phenomenon.

What is new is the suggestion by a major food retailer that it should be used instead of ‘Best Before’ dates on milk products….

Before looking at the viability of the sniff test, and to avoid confusion, we should just clarify one point – it is a legal requirement for all perishable food products intended for human consumption to carry an expiry date, beyond which it is not deemed safe to consume them. Details of current UK regulations regarding retailers’ obligations under current food standards legislation can be seen at the FSA’s website (https://www.food.gov.uk/business-guidance/packaging-and-labelling). The relevant paragraph reads: “..Food labels must be marked with either a ‘best before’ or ‘use by’ date so that it is clear how long foods can be kept and how to store them...”. These dates are based on the date of manufacture, the storage conditions expected prior to sale, and the nature of the product, and will usually include a significant safety margin. No retailer or manufacturer would, or should, agree to waive this requirement for their products, so we can expect ‘use by’ dates at least to remain on packaging, since these relate directly to food safety.

As suggested in FSA’s guidance, ‘Best Before ‘ dates relate more to product quality, and the rationale for removing them appears to be a wish to involve the consumer more in the decision making on milk quality after purchase. This makes eminent sense from an environmental point of view. 

Unfortunately, confusion over labelling has resulted in a wide public perception that products become unfit for consumption as soon as their ‘Best Before’ date has passed. Much food which is still perfectly wholesome is wasted as a result, and official bodies such as the FSA are trying to reduce this in line with our current focus on environmental well-being and climate change.

The viability and palatability of a perishable product such as milk after purchase will also depend very much on how it has been stored and handled by the consumer post-purchase, environmental temperature, etc. and its quality can really only be determined by them at the time of use. Interestingly the FSA’s consumer guide to food labelling specifically recommends not using ‘sniff’ tests to assess food after ‘use by’ dates, although this recommendation applies more generally to perishables including meat products, and no specific guidance is given for milk (see https://www.food.gov.uk/safety-hygiene/best-before-and-use-by-dates).

How viable is our ‘new’ sniff test for milk ?

As a first line check, it’s fine…few of us would put milk straight into our tea or coffee if we were in any doubt about its vintage or condition. Relying exclusively on it as a decision making tool, however, is unwise and potentially wasteful. 

The reason for this is that when a dispensing container such as a bottle or flat pack is capped and uncapped repeatedly, a residue of milk will adhere to the neck of the bottle and to its stopper or cap. This residue will tend to undergo spoilage by surface bacteria much faster than the contents of the container, particularly in hot weather. Since the ‘sniff’ test will pick up its signal primarily from the neck of the container, it won’t be representative of the contents as a whole, and is therefore likely to generate ‘false positives’. Far better to add a confirmatory ‘taste’ test before you decide to throw the whole lot out, thereby potentially saving you some hard-earned cash, and saving the environment from yet more liquid waste it doesn’t need.

Taking the discussion a bit further, a useful pointer for milk ‘storage and management’ that follows on from all this is the beneficial effect of avoiding any cross-contamination between containers. 

A good way to take advantage of this is to sub-divide the contents of your typical 4- or 6-pint container when you first open it into smaller containers (preferably plastic rather than glass), and if possible freeze some of these for later use. (If you do freeze, make sure the containers aren’t brim full, as the expansion that occurs when the milk freezes may otherwise crack the walls. Note also that whole milk is likely to separate out on thawing; semi-skimmed and skimmed are less prone to do this.)

If you don’t have sufficient freezer space to store any of your milk in this way, and don’t want the hassle of multiple containers, at least pour your immediate requirements for the day into a single clean bottle with a cap, and store the main 4- or 6-pint container capped at the back of your fridge close to the cooling coils.

If you’re someone who doesn’t use vast quantities of milk, the above advice may help prolong its life considerably and ensure it remains viable and passes the ‘sniff’ and ‘taste’ tests for as long as possible. Don’t use the whole container every time you pour a few mLs into your tea/coffee, as I used to do before I ‘saw the light’.

A reasonable conclusion from all this would, as always, seem to be: use you own judgement….you’ll probably not go too far wrong. Consuming a little sour milk is in any case unlikely to cause you much harm – it is, after all, the main constituent of yogurt…

Viv