Sainsbury’s is set to become the latest supermarket to swap use-by dates for best-before dates across its own-label milk range as part of moves to reduce food waste.
The initiative will affect 44 products in total, including all fresh and organic milk sold across its stores, and will apply to over 730 million pints of milk sold by the supermarket every year.
Research from WRAP has shown that milk is the third most wasted food in the UK, with over 490 million pints thrown away each year, often because the milk has passed its use-by date.
Sainsbury’s switch to best-before dates aims to prevent people from pouring away milk that is still safe to consume. The retailer will be encouraging its customers to follow the FSA’s guidance, which recommends using sensory cues to see if milk with a best-before date label has gone bad, for example, by sniffing the product.
The new labelling will start to roll out in the new year, with the change set to be complete by the end of February 2024.
Ruth Cranston, Director of Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability at Sainsbury’s, said: “Around a third of all food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted. Combatting food waste is one of our top priorities, and we are continuously innovating to tackle this issue, all the way from farms and suppliers, right to our customers’ homes. By switching to best-before dates on our milk we are empowering customers to make their own decisions on whether their food is good to eat, helping to prevent them from disposing of food too early.”
NAM Implications:
- Back to the old ‘sniff-test’…
- …that got us all through generations of shopping safely.
