Sell-by dates to be scrapped in war on food waste
SELL-by dates on fresh produce could be scrapped as part of a new Government scheme to target the nation's growing levels of waste.
As figures revealed Britain bins 6.7 million tonnes of food a year, the new 'war on waste' campaign could also see an end to display-until items on thousands of foods.
Environment minister Hilary Benn said today phasing-out the sell-by and display-until labelling system would stop families throwing away perfectly good food.
Speaking to the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management's Futuresource conference, Mr Benn warned that best-before dates are intended to be a mark of quality - not a safety warning.
He said: “When we buy food it should be easy to know how long we should keep it for and how we should store it.
“Too many of us are putting things in the bin simply because we’re not sure, we’re confused by the label, or we’re just playing safe."
Too many of us are putting things in the bin simply because we’re not sure, we’re confused by the label, or we’re just playing safe
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He added: “This means we’re throwing away thousands of tonnes of food every year completely unnecessarily - as part of our war on waste I want to improve the labels on our food so that when we buy a loaf of bread or a packet of cold meat, we know exactly how long it’s safe to eat.”
Waste and Resources Action Programme (Wrap) claimed 6.7 million tonnes of food are thrown away every year - most of which is still edible.
Every day in the UK five million potatoes, 4.4 million whole apples, one million loaves of bread and one million slices of ham are discarded which could be eaten, Wrap added.
Research showed that £10 billion of edible food is dumped every year, with the average family effectively throwing away £400.
A Wrap spokeswoman said: “In terms of environmental impact - producing, storing and getting the food to our homes uses a lot of energy. If we stopped wasting all this food, it would save the equivalent of at least 18 million tonnes of carbon dioxide."
Best-before and sell-by dates “muddy the waters” and products should only have use-before dates to clarify the system, a Food Standards Agency spokeswoman said.
The FSA said best-before and use-by dates were still required under European law but it wanted to clarify the food labelling system for consumers.
The spokeswoman added: “We are talking to Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), Wrap, and the food industry to identify how we can better educate people about date markings on food and also address the confusion caused by the sell-by and display-until dates also used by food businesses.
“We want to see food waste minimised but we also need to ensure people do not take unnecessary risks with food safety.”
