Grocers urged to remove ‘use by’ dates in food waste crackdown

The calls from the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) charity form part of a series of recommendations that it believes will help cut food waste by at least 20% by 2025.

WRAP said supermarkets should aim to sell more loose produce because it helps customers buy exactly what they need and reduce waste.

However, the charity says its research showed that loose fruit and veg is no longer cheaper than equivalent products that had been pre-packed in plastic bags, cartons or trays.

As part of a crackdown to lower food waste, WRAP says grocery retailers should also provide clearer cook-from-frozen advice on meat, remove advice to ‘freeze on purchase’, and add more information about the lifespan of products such as salad and bacon once they have been opened. Such fresh products often last longer than the packaging states, as long as they are kept in the fridge.

Currently around one-fifth of all food brought into homes across the UK is wasted. That amounts to 7.1 million tonnes being thrown away across the country every year, costing the average family around £810 per year.

WRAP also found that around one in five items on shop shelves, including bagged salad, beef mince and bread, had a stated life of two days or less.

It said this leads directly to food waste and called on grocers to look into “ways to ensure customers have more time to eat what they buy” as a “priority”.

The group also raised concerns that customers buying smaller pack sizes to cut down on waste were being charged more for the privilege.

In its research, WRAP found that 400g loaves of bread were on average 74% more expensive per kilogram than standard sized loaves.

WRAP said: “Offering fresh produce loose gives customers the opportunity to purchase the correct amount for their needs. Where fresh produce is packaged, the absence of a ‘best before’ date – on some items – can also help to reduce waste by encouraging people to use their judgement more.”