Waitrose are set to scrap 'best before' dates on almost 500 products, as part of their campaign to crackdown on food waste.
The upmarket food retailer instead will ask customers to use their own judgement with regards to when produce has gone off or bad. Waitrose have announced that they will bring these changes from next month, on items including packaged fruit and vegetables.
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The Mirror reports that the move is expected to eliminate millions of baskets worth of food waste. It comes following the announcement from rival Marks and Spencer last month, who said that they will axe the same criteria on more than 300 fruit and veg products.
Morrisons also announced plans in January to remove "use by" dates on milk and encourage consumers to use a "sniff test" instead, while Tesco got rid of the dates on more than 100 fresh food products in 2018.
"Best before" dates are about the quality of food, while "use by" dates are used to show when a product is no longer safe to eat. Experts at Waste & Resources Action Programme (Wrap) said that these dates on fruit and vegetables are unnecessary.
Marija Rompani, director of sustainability and ethics at John Lewis Partnership, which owns Waitrose, 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. By removing best before dates from our products, we want our customers to use their own judgement 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."
Catherine David, director of collaboration and change at Wrap, added: "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."
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