I REFER to the reply, "No expiry date needed on long shelf-life food", by Mr Goh Shih Yong of AVA (my paper, March 12).

I disagree with Mr Goh that expiry dates are not required for long shelf-life food products.

How do you define "long shelf-life"? Twelve months, 24 months?

Canned foods and jams are also perishables, although it takes longer for them to go bad, compared with milk and yoghurt, for example.

As consumers, we rely on expiry dates as a gauge for whether the products have been displayed on the shelves for too long.

In my opinion, expiry dates are a basic and important piece of information for food products.

Although batch numbers are not required by law, I applaud the manufacturers for adopting the practice of putting such numbers on their products.

In the event of a recall, the batch numbers will be the key identifier and thus a good control measure.

So they are not just for "efficient stock movement".

We can go on and on about how food manufacturers should be ethical but I think that, for a start, making expiry dates mandatory would serve as a good deterrent against any potential misbehaviour on the part of the food makers.

Ms Koh Mau Reen