Waitrose has been named the worst supermarket for sending out online orders with short shelf life on perishable food. The posh grocer had the shortest average shelf life of six UK supermarkets with 7.7 days, according to a new Which? investigation.
Products with shortest shelf life
It was worst on average for several products, including scones, bread, fresh pasta sauce, fresh tagliatelle, houmous and pork sausages. In some examples, Which? found two packs of Waitrose beef mince and a pack of chicken thighs arrived with a use-by date the day after delivery.
Tesco was the next worst, with an average of 8.8 days shelf life on its fresh food. One shopper received fresh pasta sauce and pork sausages both with 3.4 days of life left - far below the seven and five days' life Tesco says shoppers should expect for these products.
How other supermarkets fared
Sainsbury's had an average shelf life of 10.2 days. Three items, sweetcorn and two packs of basil, had a best-before date on the day of delivery. The typical shelf left for Ocado was 10.4 days. Which? found two packs of honey roast ham had more than 20 days left - however, one shopper received basil that was in date but black and wilted.
Morrisons performed well overall, but one substituted raspberry trifle had less than four hours until it expired. In contrast, Which? found one shopper received houmous with 24.38 days left. One mystery shopper however, received an opened pot of pineapple from Morrisons that had leaked over other groceries.
Asda delivers freshest groceries
Which? found that Asda delivered the freshest groceries overall. Five shoppers received beef mince with at least 18 days left before its use-by date, while one pack of cod had seven days remaining. A tomato and mascarpone pasta sauce ordered by Which? from Asda had an average of 33.6 days remaining.
Which? used 12 mystery shoppers to order the same list of 29 fresh groceries from Asda, Morrisons, Ocado, Sainsbury's, Tesco and Waitrose. More than 2,000 perishable items were ordered and delivered. Researchers then added the number of full hours remaining from the time of delivery to midnight on the use-by date for each item and calculated an average time per supermarket.
Average remaining shelf life 'use by' per supermarket
- Asda - 11 days
- Morrisons - 10.4 days
- Ocado - 10.4 days
- Sainsbury's - 10.2 days
- Tesco - 8.8 days
- Waitrose - 7.7 days
Reena Sewraz, Which? retail editor, said: “When you pay for a supermarket delivery, you expect your fresh food to have a reasonable amount of time left on it. Our investigation found a striking difference between supermarkets, with some shoppers getting several days’ less time to use their groceries than others – and in some cases, just hours. It’s particularly hard to swallow when you’re paying premium prices but getting food with a much shorter shelf life. Supermarkets need to make sure their freshness promises actually deliver, so shoppers aren’t left having to change their meal plans, rush to use food or throw away groceries they’ve paid for.”
A spokesperson for Ocado said: "We are proud of our Fresh+ promise, making us the only UK online grocery retailer to offer a life guarantee on all fresh products. Our promise guarantees a minimum number of days of freshness on products ranging from fruit and veg to bread and milk, ensuring customers can trust Ocado to deliver the freshness they are looking for on each and every delivery. If customers aren't 100% happy with a product's freshness, they can easily arrange an immediate refund online or through our app."
A spokesperson for Tesco said: “We work hard to select the freshest items with the longest expiry dates for all our Grocery Home Shopping delivery and Click + Collect orders and we highlight any items that have a shorter shelf life than we would like as part of our Freshness Guarantee. If customers are not happy with any items at the time of delivery or collection, they can hand them back for a full refund.”
A spokesperson for Waitrose said: “We are committed to offering the freshest and highest quality products, reflected in our growing online grocery sales. And in response to increasing customer demand for products with simpler ingredients, we have removed preservatives from some of the items in this analysis where they are common, including our houmous. Our online grocery pickers are trained to choose the longest dated products they can, and our most recent customer survey showed that the vast majority of our online customers rated the shelf life of our products as good or excellent.”
A spokesperson from Asda said: "Freshness matters to our customers, so it's great to see Which? find that Asda delivers the freshest groceries overall. We've worked hard to improve our online delivery service and availability, and we're committed to making sure customers get fresh, quality produce and outstanding value, every time they shop with us."
