I am a senior citizen, having lived on austere Second World War rations. With no fridge and, in those days, only a larder to keep food fresh (which it never did) and with a schoolboy's ravenous appetite, always hungry, any food, even slightly off, was always welcome - rancid butter, mouldy bread or cheese. You name it, we ate it!

Didn't Fleming notice this previously when discovering penicillin?

We lived and the nation was supposedly never healthier than during that time.

Fast forward to the present day with an over-abundance of food, but how much is wasted? A crime, particularly with the poverty and hunger in the Third World.

It's a "throw-away society". And why do we so rigidly follow the use-by dates when some of the contents appear to be still perfectly safe to eat?

In our day, sight, taste and smell were considered our "use-by dates"and we survived!

Michael Williams Southwick Square, Southwick