Russians increasingly prefer products with an expiration date: are there any risks

The expert explained what you need to pay attention to

Products with an expiration date do not bother Russians at all: one in four is ready to use them, and two-thirds buy them from time to time. Experts attribute this to a completely rational craving for savings, since such goods are often sold at huge discounts. And we are not talking about a “delay” that is obviously unsafe for health, the place of which is in the garbage, and not in the kitchen. However, there are pitfalls in the story with expiring dates.

According to a survey conducted in February in all regions of the Russian Federation by the National Agency for Financial Research (NAFI), 25% of respondents prefer food with borderline expiration dates, 42% buy it only as a last resort in the absence of fresher goods, and 28% are ready do it under any circumstances. 60% of respondents try to consume such food faster, and 25% give it to pets. It also turned out that more than half (56%) of citizens rarely throw away food (mainly vegetables, fruits, flour and dairy products), and 24% – never or almost never.

Shelf life – the time period during which the product is suitable for its intended use. And then – absolutely no. These terms and conditions of storage are prescribed in state standards for each subgroup of products. But in the case of a single product, they are set by the manufacturer. If the composition includes several components, the expiration date is determined by the ingredient with the least “survivability”. If the goods are sold by weight, then it is calculated not from the date of packaging, but from the date of manufacture. The most capricious are ultra-perishable products: cream cakes, ready-made salads, fresh fish, semi-finished products from chilled meat. They retain consumer properties only from 12 hours to three days, and only in a chilled state. Therefore, on the packaging, the manufacturer is obliged to indicate the exact date of issue – not only the year and month, but the day and even the hour.

Perishable products are those that can be stored in the refrigerator for three to 30 days. For example, pasteurized milk in a soft package will not turn sour for five days, and yogurt will last 14. Long-term storage products include, in particular, flour, salt, tea, sugar and canned food: they will last up to five years when closed. After the expiration date, the goods are withdrawn from sale and transferred for disposal to specialized companies with which the store has service agreements.

A number of experts do not recommend buying chilled meat and semi-finished products with an expiration date in two or three days for a promotion (35-50% cheaper than the original price tag) or with the inscription “markdown”. According to them, you should also be wary of packages with re-glued, poorly readable or smeared markings. But how big is the risk of getting food poisoning?

“Formally, if you look at the packaging, the product may be usable, but in reality it could be stored in a refrigerator at a temperature above the norm,” says Aleksey Zubets, a professor at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation. – Of course, the consumer runs the risk of running into such a low-quality product, although the probability is low. It is also obvious that people will benefit from various promotions and discount offers.”

The problem is not that the population does not have enough money (at the end of 2022, the level of real incomes was almost equal to that of 2021, after a failure in the spring), but in fear of the unknown. In the opinion of Zubets, hence the desire to save once again.

“Reducing the price at the end of the shelf life of goods on the shelf allows retailers to reduce the write-off of expired products to zero,” explains

executive director of “Rusprodsoyuz” Dmitry Vostrikov. – Buyers pay less for quite high-quality products, which is especially important in the face of non-growing incomes. Thus, it is a matter of mutual benefit. In addition, retailers could get an increase in the offer on the shelf and a decrease in entry prices if they revised the inflated requirements for durable goods, optimizing them for the turnaround time of products in the category.”