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| Tesco customer in a pickle over labelling | |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| Tesco has tried to resolve a condiment conundrum in one of its ready meals. | |
| Customer Matthew Stock did not mince his words when he tweeted Tesco asking it to explain a best before date of 20140 on a sachet of burger relish. | |
| The chain responded saying the date code on the relish included with two beef burgers was the "Julian date". | |
| Translated into the Gregorian calendar, the most commonly used calendar in the world, 20140 would be 20 May 2020, Tesco tweeted. | |
| However, adding to the confusion, the Julian date 20140 actually corresponds to 19 May 2020, the 140th day of 2020, not 20 May. | |
| The Julian date is used in some fields, including astronomy and the food industry, to calculate the days which have passed between two events, for example between a food production date and a best before date. | |
| It is not based on the historical Julian calendar, which predated use of the Gregorian calendar in the UK. | |
| Mr Stock bought the Tesco own label meal which contained two burgers, two buns, two cheese slices and the sachet of relish. | |
| He tweeted the supermarket, saying: "Hello there Tesco, could you please explain this expiry date please?" | He tweeted the supermarket, saying: "Hello there Tesco, could you please explain this expiry date please?" |
| Tesco employee Maggie replied: "The date code on the relish only is the Julian date. 20140 is the 140th day. This translated into the Gregorian calendar is the 20th May 2020." | |
| Matthew Stock tweeted back: "Are you serious? Surely that's not a legitimate way of dating products?" | Matthew Stock tweeted back: "Are you serious? Surely that's not a legitimate way of dating products?" |
| Maggie responded: "Hi Matthew, I fully agree with you. If I had received this myself I wouldn't have known what this meant. What I can do is pass this through to my support team to ask why they date it this way. I'll come back to you asap." | |
| 'Relish the chance' | |
| A Tesco spokesman told the BBC: "The Julian date code is used by our supplier for internal traceability purposes. The standard best before date is printed on the outside of the main packaging. | A Tesco spokesman told the BBC: "The Julian date code is used by our supplier for internal traceability purposes. The standard best before date is printed on the outside of the main packaging. |
| "We're sorry if any of our customers got in a pickle about this and we have relished the chance to put the record straight. | |
| "All food manufacturers are legally required to stamp a best before or a use-by date on their products. | |
| Best-before dates are indicators of the quality of the food item, use-by dates are about their safety. | |
| The Food Standards Agency (FSA) pointed out the date on the relish shown in the tweet was "best before end" and "is about quality not safety". | The Food Standards Agency (FSA) pointed out the date on the relish shown in the tweet was "best before end" and "is about quality not safety". |
| In a statement the FSA said: "The outer pack should have a use-by date or best-before date, this would be the date consumers would be expected to follow for the product as a whole." | |