Supermarket food bought online is 'less fresh than in store'

While customers can reject items that will need to be consumed within a day or two when they shop at a supermarket, they have no such choice when the goods are delivered direct to their homes.

Yesterday a survey by Which? revealed that groceries bought online are on average more than a day less fresh than those purchased in-store.

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One loaf of bread ordered over the Internet had a best before date eight days earlier than an equivalent product bought at a branch of the same supermarket.

The difference could equate to thousands of tons of groceries being thrown out as they have gone off sooner than consumers expected.

However the supermarkets have called the finding 'nonsense', saying online shoppers receive exactly the same goods as those who visit stores.

Which? researchers visited Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda and Waitrose branches and bought ten fresh items typically bought in a weekly shop, choosing the freshest, non-organic produce.

The shopping list was: a bag of carrots, a punnet of plums, a cucumber, a bag of baking potatoes, cheddar cheese, two chicken breasts, a Hovis wholemeal loaf, a bag of mixed lettuce, 12 free-range eggs and semi-skimmed milk.

They also ordered identical items online from the four supermarkets to arrive on the same day as the shop visits.

The research found that on average the best-before dates on produce bought in-store were more than a day later than for goods bought over the Internet.

Which? has not released a full breakdown of its research, but says no supermarket performed worse than any other overall.

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A Which? spokesman said: "Online shopping might save you from traipsing round a busy supermarket but you may need to eat your food sooner than if you shop in the store."

Last night a spokesman for Asda said: "It's nonsense.

"When you order home shopping at Asda it comes from exactly the same place your normal shopping comes from - our stores."

Sainsbury's and Tesco said their personal shoppers were trained to pick the freshest produce in the store.

Tesco added that online customers had the option of requesting minimum best-before dates.

Waitrose said its grocery shoppers pick orders during opening hours so goods ought to be the same as those that customers would choose themselves.