Now that you're discussing it I remember hearing something on the radio here in the US about the variety of "sell by" versus "best by" and such dates that are on British food - leading people to toss food before it needs to be tossed- wasting something upwards of 50%? It was a few days ago, so I guess there must have been a story about your bins that made the news over here. Why else would we be discussing your "sell by" dates?