Wednesday 23 May 2018

Every little helps (to reduce food waste)!

Tesco is removing the “best before” dates from some fruits and vegetables which it says will reduce food waste.

It will stop providing the information for nearly 70 pre-packaged lines to prevent “perfectly edible food from being thrown away”.

They will include apples, potatoes, tomatoes, onions, lemons and other citrus fruits.

The supermarket chain said “best before” labels indicate the quality of a product is no longer at its best but it is still good to eat and “use by” dates show there is a safety risk if the food is eaten after that date.

Head of Food Waste Mark Little said: “We know some customers may be conduced by the difference between ‘best before’ and ‘use by’ dates on food and this can lead to perfectly edible items being thrown away before they need to be discarded. We have made this change to fruit and vegetable packaging as they are among the most wasted foods.

“Many customers have told us that they assess their fruit and vegetables by the look of the product rather than the ‘best before’ date code on the packaging.”