All fresh produce and many other products will soon only have a 'use by' date

The Government is planning to scrap misleading ‘best before’ and ‘sell by’ dates on almost all fresh produce and thousands of other food products, as they lead to food being thrown away unnecessarily.

‘Best before’ dates are supposed to give a rough idea of when the best time to eat something is, whereas ‘sell by’ dates are simply there to help with supermarket stock management.  The ‘use by’ date is the only one that indicates the food may cause some harm if eaten after this time.

The Government claims as much as 364,000 tons of edible food is misguidedly thrown away each year due to confusing labelling, and a further 39,400 tons reaches landfill sites without even being opened.

Supermarkets are also being encouraged to drop jumbo packs and BOGOF (Buy One Get One Free) offers that merely lead to more food waste.  The waste reduction body WRAP found that up to 30 per cent of consumers were throwing away food unnecessarily because pack sizes are too large.

Food and Farming Secretary Hilary Benn says, “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.  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.”

The Government also plans to tackle the issue of supermarket packaging, as each British household takes home 200 kilos per year with their food.