Asda has announced a major packaging change to its yoghurt in efforts to save money and combat waste.
The supermarket chain has confirmed that it will be removing the 'use by' dates across a range of its own-label yoghurts in a bid to help customers use their own judgement when food is off.
Over the next few weeks, shoppers will begin to notice as 'use by' dates are replaced with 'best before' across products such as Asda natural yoghurt, Greek Yoghurt and Extra Special Strawberry and Hazelnut.
According to the supermarket, it sells around 455,000 yoghurt products a week from its 28 lines.
The major packaging change comes after data from climate action group NGO WRAP revealed that a massive 50% of all yoghurt wasted from UK households come from unopened cartons.
The label itself has also been cited as the reason for the waste, as an additional 70% of yoghurt waste comes from households not 'eating the product in time'.
Asda's move comes after its Technical Manager, Microbiologist and Product Manager conducted "robust" food safety and quality evaluations to ensure its existing recipes would be safe after the change.
Paul Gillow, Vice President of Fresh & Frozen Foods at Asda, said: "We are always looking at ways we can help customers reduce food waste in the home, and with research from WRAP saying 54,000 tonnes of edible yoghurt is thrown away unnecessarily each year we are hopeful this change will both make a big difference to the environment and save customers money at the same time."
Catherine David, Director of Collaboration & Change, WRAP, said: "WRAP is thrilled to see our partner Asda make these changes on yoghurts – which will help reduce food waste in our homes.
"Wasting food feeds climate change and costs us money – with the average family spending £700 year on good food which ends up in the bin. Our research shows applying the appropriate date label to products like yoghurts can help reduce the amount of good food that is thrown in the bin."
This is not the first time that Asda has changed its food labels in a bid to help combat food waste, as it joined a host of other supermarkets by scrapping best before dates across its fresh product range.
The move saw the grocery giant remove the dates on almost 250 of its fresh fruit and vegetables products late last year including citrus fruits, potatoes, cauliflowers and carrots.
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