Waitrose scraps best before dates on hundreds of food items

Another leading supermarket has moved to scrap ‘best before’ dates on hundreds of fresh food items, in a bid to reduce food waste.

Waitrose says nearly 500 fresh food products will no longer feature the labels from September.

That includes a number of packaged fruit and vegetables, tonnes of which are currently thrown away by Brits who think they are no longer edible after that date.

The supermarket says the move will encourage consumers to use their own judgment about when food has gone off.

It claims the plan will eliminate millions of baskets worth of food waste by preventing people throwing away products that are still edible.

It comes after Marks & Spencer axed best before dates from more than 300 fruit and vegetable products earlier this month following a successful trial.

Tesco had led the way for the high street supermarkets when it got rid of the dates on more than 100 fresh food products in 2018.

In October, Metro.co.uk launched its #Just1Change environmental campaign with an investigation on how well supermarkets were doing on the climate crisis. You can see how Waitrose fared against M & S here.

Commenting on the supermarket’s latest move, the director of sustainability and ethics at the Waitrose owners John Lewis Partnership said: ‘UK households throw away 4.5 million tonnes of edible food every year, meaning that all the energy and resources used in food production is wasted.’

Marija Rompani continued: ‘By removing best before dates from our products, we want our customers to use their own judgment to decide whether a product is good to eat or not, which in turn will increase its chances of being eaten and not becoming waste.

‘By using up existing fresh food in our homes, we can also save on our weekly household food shop, which is becoming an increasingly pressing concern for many.’

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Waitrose suggest ‘best before’ dates are designed to show food quality rather than how safe it is eat.

But it says ‘use by’ dates are given for safety and could result in food poisoning if ignored.

Experts at Waste & Resources Action Programme (Wrap) said ‘best before’ dates on fruit and vegetables are unnecessary and contribute to climate change.

Its director of collaboration and change Catherine David said: ‘Best before dates on fruit and veg are unnecessary and create food waste because they get in the way of people using their judgement when food is still good to eat.

‘We are absolutely delighted by this move from Waitrose which will help stop good food ending up in the bin.

‘We estimate that removing dates on fresh fruit and veg could save the equivalent of seven million shopping baskets of food from the bin, which is huge.’

Other supermarkets have taken various environmental steps in the face of growing pressure from sustainability groups.

In January, Morrisons announced plans to remove ‘use by’ dates on milk and encourage consumers to use a ‘sniff test’ to determine if it is safe to drink.

In October, Sainsbury’s brought forward its target to reach Net Zero by five years – and was quickly followed by Morrisons, days after Metro.co.uk launched #Just1Change.

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