The head of retail giant Tesco is encouraging families to keep bread in the fridge so it will last longer.
Tesco chairman John Allan is also urging people to ignore certain best before dates as he believes they are "over-conservative".
His comments come as the cost of living soars in Ireland and the UK.
It is becoming increasingly expensive here to pay for fundamental utilities like groceries, heat, electricity and housing.
Mr Allan raised the subject during an interview over the weekend where he addressed rising grocery prices and food waste.
"There is a re-appraisal going on at the moment about whether sell-by or eat-by dates are over-conservative, and I think that’s going to change in the years ahead," he told BBC One on Sunday.
"Quite a lot of those dates will come off.
“I know I can keep bread in the fridge for quite a long time beyond its official life and I think savvy customers realise that as well.”
He added that "many people", including himself, consume products such as bread beyond the recommended sell-by date.
Mr Allan said the move to potentially change the use-by dates will also help reduce food waste.
“Food waste in the home is actually much greater than food waste in our stores," he said.
“And I think one of the things we have to do is to help shoppers realise that there are ways in which they can have less food waste at home.”
The supermarket boss added that the company is doing what it can to keep food prices low despite the soaring cost of living and inflation.
"Wherever we can, we are pulling prices down," Mr Allan said.
It comes as new research shows that grocery price inflation in Ireland has reached 1.7%.
Market share figures from Kantar show that for the 12 weeks ending January 23 this year, grocery price inflation is at its highest level since October 2020.
Emer Healy, senior retail analyst at Kantar, said: “The number of products being sold on promotion has dropped by 3% compared with last January.
"We’re already seeing evidence of people starting to shop around at different retailers to try and find the best price for their weekly shop.”
Dunnes Stores retained its position as Ireland’s largest retailer, holding 23.1% of the market in the period up to January 23.
SuperValu follows closely with a market share of 22.2% while Tesco is just 0.1 percentage points behind this at 22.1%.
Lidl now holds an 11.8% share, with Aldi at 11.6%.
