The secret supermarket code that shows which fruit and vegetables are freshest

The freshness of fruit and vegetables can be hit or miss. Some potatoes last an age, raspberries seem to go off in the blink of an eye, and an avocado will turn from solid to mushy overnight.

It used to be incredibly simple to find out which fruit was freshest when best-before dates were still a thing. But major supermarkets removed them from fruit and veggies years ago to cut down on food waste. Tesco scrapped a majority in 2018, while M&S got rid in 2022. However, there is still a way to discover which fruit is the freshest through supermarkets’ unique code systems, which reveal when the fruit is ‘best before’.

Consumer champion Which? revealed that Asda and Tesco use a similar system. Its codes start with an alphabetised letter that represents a month, so A means January, B means February, and so on.

This is followed by a number that represents the date. So if you see the code ‘A28’, this means the fruit is best before January 28.

Which? added: “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 okay.

“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.”

Sainsbury’s uses a slightly different system. The code begins with J and ends with S, to represent its business name J Sainsbury. The date is squeezed in the middle of the code. So if you see the code ‘J1508S’, this means the fruit is best before August 15.

Morrisons has perhaps the simplest system of all. It uses the first letter of the month, followed by the date. Vegetables marked with S08 would be best before September 8.

However, the consumer champion urged that veggies and fruit without a ‘use by’ date are often still good to eat after the best before date.