Buying groceries online can cause very unpleasant surprise, consumer group warns

23 June 2023 , 23:01

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The out-of-date sausages (Image: Daily Mirror)

In a test to check the freshness of goods delivered by supermarkets, a pack of sausages arrived when they were 11 days past their use-by date.

A team from consumer body Which? placed online orders with six major retailers.

They only got items with use-by dates, checking how long was left before each one was meant to be eaten and worked out an average.

Last was Sainsbury’s on 9.7 days. It also delivered the most out of date item, a pack of chilled frankfurters 11 days past the date given.

Asda delivered a Stilton cheese that was out of date by nearly three days. A further five items from Asda had a use-by date of the following day.

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An out-of-date Stilton was also received (Leicester Mercury / Chris Gordon)

Which? retail editor Ele Clark said: “There can be downsides to not choosing products yourself, but no one would expect items to already be out of date when they arrive at the doorstep.”

Ocado came top, with an average of 11.2 days left before the use-by date on the items.

Next was Tesco at 10.2 days, then Morrisons on 10.1 days and Asda at 10 days. Waitrose was fifth at 9.9 days. Sainsbury’s said: “Our grocery online shoppers are trained to pick the longest date and best available products for customers’ deliveries.

“We deliver 85,000 orders a day and are sorry this tiny number of examples has not lived up to our usual high service.”

Asda said: “We want all customers to receive the freshest products available and train our colleagues to pick products well within their use-by date.

“If customers are not satisfied with any products, they can hand these back to the driver and receive a full refund.”

Graham Hiscott