Waitrose had the shortest average shelf life among six supermarkets tested by Which?, with fresh and perishable groceries lasting 7.7 days on average. The comparison used identical online orders placed by 12 mystery shoppers over a fortnight, and it puts Waitrose at the bottom of a six-way test on use-by dates.
Which? comparison details
Which? compared 29 fresh and perishable items at Asda, Morrisons, Ocado, Sainsbury's, Tesco and Waitrose. Tesco’s average shelf life was 8.8 days, while Sainsbury's averaged 10.2 days. Asda was identified as delivering the freshest produce.
The test sits against a backdrop of higher grocery prices in the UK between 2022 and 2024, before inflation slowed to around 2% over the past year. For shoppers buying food online, the practical issue is straightforward: fewer days on the clock means a shorter window to use what arrives.
Waitrose and Asda items
The spread inside the results was wide. Five shoppers received beef mince from Asda with at least 18 days remaining before its use-by date, and one pack of cod from Asda had seven days left. A pasta sauce from Asda had an average of 33.6 days remaining.
Waitrose’s pasta sauce averaged 12.2 days remaining and cost 23p more than the Asda version. Two packs of Waitrose beef mince and a pack of chicken thighs arrived with a use-by date the day after delivery. That left some Waitrose items near immediate use, even though others from the same test came with longer dates.
Tesco, Sainsbury's and Morrisons
Tesco delivered fresh groceries with an average of 8.8 days of shelf life remaining. One Tesco customer received fresh pasta sauce and pork sausages with just 3.4 days left, even though Tesco’s online shelf life guide said shoppers should expect a week for the sauce and at least five days for the sausages.
At Sainsbury's, three items carried a best-before date on the day of delivery. Morrisons also showed a sharp split: one substituted raspberry trifle had fewer than four hours left before it expired, while one Morrisons shopper received houmous with 24.38 days still to go. That mix shows why a single average can hide very different experiences within one order.
Ocado and next steps
Ocado had two packs of ham with more than 20 days remaining, but one customer received basil that arrived black and wilted. Which? contacted all six supermarkets for comment, but full responses from Asda, Morrisons and Sainsbury's were not included in the comparison. For shoppers, the ranking points to a simple checkout check: fresh and perishable items from Waitrose were the least likely to arrive with a long date window, while Asda came out strongest on freshness.
