A smart shopper has revealed a little-known trick for finding the freshest fruit and vegetables at Aldi.
The 26-year-old, who goes by @thefinancegurl online and is from Aberdeen, said there is a secret code on the fresh produce items that customers should look out for.
She explained that on bags of fruit and vegetables, there is a four-digit number that represents the item’s shelf life – even when no expiry date is shown.
Aldi, along with a number of British supermarkets, has scrapped use-by and best-before dates in a bid to curb food waste.
The TikTok user, who has £60,000 in savings thanks to her financially savvy ways, said the code represents the week of the year and day of the week, meaning the higher the number, the fresher the produce inside.
‘Some products don’t have a best-before date on them, but there’s a secret code you can use to make sure you’re getting the freshest option,’ she said in an online video.
Using a pack of red onions as an example, she drew viewers’ attention to the noticeable ‘3406’ code on the label.
‘The first two numbers represent the week of the year, and the last two numbers represent the day of the week,’ the shopper said.
A savvy shopper has revealed that the meaning behind the code printed on fresh produce packaging at Aldi. Cracking the code could score shoppers the freshest fruit and vegetables
She explained the four-digit number seen on produce without an expiry date represents that item’s shelf life (file image)
‘This code basically represents the shelf life, so the higher the number, the fresher the produce.’
34 indicates the onions are at their freshest until the 34th week of the year, commencing on Monday, August 18.
While the 06 represents the sixth day of that week, which is a Saturday, so the onions have a shelf life expiring on August 23.
‘The onions with the code 3502 are three days fresher than the ones with the code 3406,’ she clarified.
Her followers were thankful for the handy advice, with one saying: ‘Omg game changer! Thank you so much!’
‘Omg that’s so incredibly useful,’ a second agreed, and another joked: ‘We’ve all been conned for years’.
Aldi isn’t the only major supermarket to have come up with codes that can help decipher how fresh items are.
According to consumer website Which?, each company has a slightly different code to crack.
The TikToker said the code represents the week of the year and day of the week, meaning the higher the number, the fresher the produce inside
This code, on a packet of leeks from Sainsburys, means the best before date is the 28th of November
At Asda and Tesco, look for a letter followed by a number, they say. ‘A’ refers to January, ‘B’ is February, ‘C’ is March and so on, while the number refers to the day of the month.
So, for example, the best–before date of an item with the code J27 would be October 27.
Those who prefer to shop at Sainsbury’s will have a different code to decipher, they revealed.
These codes all begin with ‘J’ and end in ‘S’ – in reference to founder J Sainsbury – and contain the date in the middle.
Therefore, an item with the code ‘J0904S’ will have a best–before date of April 9.
Morrisons is probably the easiest to work out, they said, as the supermarket simply uses the first letter and day of the month.
Therefore, a product with the code ‘S27’ has a best–before date of 27 September.
This could potentially cause some confusion, however, as certain months such as June and July start with the same letter.
‘Bear in mind that food is usually perfectly edible after its best–before or sell–by date – it should be fine to eat if it looks and smells OK,’ their website reads.
Morrison’s kiwi fruit with a fresh produce display date of ‘D5’, which translates to the 5th of December
The hack will prove helpful for those who like to check the best–before dates of fruit and vegetables, like these at Sainsbury’s (file image)
‘However, food with a use–by date, such as pre–cut fruit, must be eaten by midnight of its expiry date, or it could be unsafe.’
The tips will hopefully help reduce food waste, which has become a major issue for households across the UK.
A survey of 2,000 Brits, carried out by Aldi, found that while a third of us claim to have the best intentions to eat healthy fruits and vegetables, more than half admit to throwing too much of it away.
The average household chucks away a whopping nine pieces a week – adding up to £468 over the course of a year, they discovered.
As part of the survey, Aldi also pinpointed the most commonly thrown away fresh food items in Britain.
Bananas top the list, with households each chucking away an average of 115 a year, while tomatoes, mushrooms, and ‘easy peelers’ are also ending up in the bin.
Almost a quarter of respondents said they only get through half a bag of salad before having to throw it away.
Meanwhile, 57 per cent admitted they don’t fully understand exactly where and how to store food to keep it fresh for longer.
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