Tesco shoppers will find more products without 'use by' labels as part of a policy being rolled out by the supermarket giant. A total of 30 of the supermarket chain's own dairy products will have the label removed.
The Mirror reports the move is part of a plan to help reduce food waste. The products include Greek Style Yogurt, Creamfields Greek Style Yogurt and Creamfields Berry Medley Low Fat Yogurt.
However, the product will not be unlabelled, it will instead feature a "best before" date instead. Tesco said ditching "use by" dates would “prevent perfectly edible food from being thrown away” as it would allow consumers to “use their own judgement on whether to eat a product”.
The move comes as the latest data from a survey by food waste prevention group Wrap revealed that UK shoppers wasted 54,000 tonnes of yogurt a year. This is equal to 9% of all purchases.
Amy Walker, Tesco's lead technical manager for dairy, said: “We have made the decision to remove ‘use by’ dates on yogurts where it is safe to do so, after extensive testing which reveals that the acidity of the product acts as a natural preservative.
"However, consumers should always use their judgement to determine if the quality is acceptable." “These lines represent a significant proportion of our own brand yogurts and we hope to phase the change in between now and the end of June.”
This is not the first time Tesco has removed the label, the supermarket chain did the same on more than 170 fruit and vegetable lines in 2018 as part of an earlier drive to cut food waste. This changed the labelling of apples, potatoes, tomatoes, lemons and other citrus fruit and onions.
It is also not the first major UK supermarket to remove the label on dairy products. Fellow chains Asda, Co-Op and Sainsbury's all ditched the "use by" dates on their yoghurt lineups last year.
In the UK, the "best before" is generally a guideline for quality, taste and freshness, added by the manufacturer. This is totally different to "use by" dates.
"Best before" dates are put on foods by retailers as a quality indication to show that although they may no longer be at their best they are still good to eat. And "use by" dates are used when products need to be eaten before the date for safety reasons and they must be eaten or frozen by midnight on its "use by" date.
The Food Standards Agency explains that people should "never eat food after the use by date, even if it looks and smells ok, as it could make you very ill".
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