A new Which? investigation has revealed that Waitrose has the shortest average shelf life for fresh food among six leading UK supermarkets. The consumer group's research, carried out over a fortnight, examined more than 2,000 items from 29 fresh and perishable products ordered online from Asda, Morrisons, Ocado, Sainsbury's, Tesco and Waitrose.
Waitrose scores lowest for freshness
Twelve mystery shoppers placed identical online orders at each supermarket, and researchers calculated the average time from delivery to the use-by date for every item. Waitrose averaged just 7.7 days, the shortest of all six, and performed worst on numerous products including scones, bread, fresh pasta sauce, fresh tagliatelle, houmous and pork sausages.
In some cases, two packs of Waitrose beef mince and a pack of chicken thighs arrived with a use-by date the day after delivery. Tesco delivered fresh groceries with an average of 8.8 days remaining, while one customer received fresh pasta sauce and pork sausages with just 3.4 days left, despite Tesco's online shelf life guide stating shoppers should expect a week for the sauce and at least five days for the sausages.
Asda delivers freshest produce
Asda came out on top, with five shoppers receiving beef mince with at least 18 days before its use-by date, and one pack of cod with seven days left. A pasta sauce from Asda had an average of 33.6 days remaining, compared with just 12.2 days from Waitrose, despite the Waitrose version costing 23p more.
At Sainsbury's, the average shelf life was 10.2 days, with three items—sweetcorn and two packs of basil—carrying a best-before date on the day of delivery. Ocado fared better with some longer-lasting products, including two packs of ham with more than 20 days remaining, though one customer received basil that was black and wilted. Morrisons performed solidly overall, but one substituted raspberry trifle had fewer than four hours left before expiring, while another shopper received houmous with 24.38 days still to go.
Supermarkets respond
All supermarkets were contacted for comment by Which?, but Asda, Morrisons and Sainsbury's did not provide an official response. A Tesco spokesperson 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 Waitrose spokesperson 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."
An Ocado spokesperson 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."
