​M&S to remove ‘use by’ dates on milk in bid to reduce waste

Marks & Spencer said in a statement that the change will come into action from this week and shoppers can expect to see ‘use by’ dates on fresh milk changed to ‘best before’ dates.

M&S is now the first retailer offering ‘best before’ dates on fully recyclable milk bottles, following its removal of coloured plastic caps on milk earlier this year in its bid to “help customers tackle food waste and play their part in a circular economy”.

According to the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), UK households are estimated to waste more than 490 million pints of milk a year.

M&S said shoppers can “use their judgement” before throwing milk away.

M&S director of corporate affairs Victoria McKenzie-Gould said: “Since we launched Plan A in 2007, we’ve been taking action on our roadmap to net zero and on the issues that matter most to our customers

“It’s never a job done but over the past year our colleagues have done a fantastic job – from being first to market on higher welfare chicken to removing 75 million units of plastic packaging.

“We know tackling food waste is a priority for our customers and we’re confident that these small changes to the packaging of our RSPCA Assured fresh milk will make a big difference – as seen when we led the way in the removal of best before dates on our fruit and vegetables.”

This follows the decision made by M&S to remove ‘best before’ dates on more than 300 of its fruit and vegetable lines last July to encourage customers to throw away less food at home by “using their judgement on what’s still good to eat”.