Waitrose to scrap ‘best before’ dates and urge shoppers to ‘use their own judgement’

Supermarket Waitrose will remove “best before” dates on nearly 500 fresh food products – and instead encourage shoppers to use their own judgment.

The move, which begins in September, is expected to eliminate millions of baskets worth of food waste by preventing people from throwing away products that are still edible, the grocery giant said.

Earlier this month, Marks & Spencer axed “best before” dates from more than 300 of its fruit and vegetable products following a successful trial.

However, Tesco led the way for the high street supermarkets when it got rid of the dates on more than 100 fresh food products in 2018.

Marija Rompani, director of sustainability and ethics at John Lewis Partnership, which owns Waitrose, said: “UK households throw away 4.5 million tonnes of edible food every year, meaning that all the energy and resources used in food production are wasted.

“By removing best before dates from our products, we want our customers to use their own judgment to decide whether a product is good to eat or not, which in turn will increase its chances of being eaten and not becoming waste.

Sniff test

Catherine David, director of collaboration and change at Wrap, said: “Best before dates on fruit and veg are unnecessary and create food waste because they get in the way of people using their judgment when food is still good to eat.

“We are absolutely delighted by this move from Waitrose which will help stop good food ending up in the bin.

“We estimate that removing dates on fresh fruit and veg could save the equivalent of seven million shopping baskets of food from the bin, which is huge.”

Other supermarkets have taken steps to reduce food waste as they face growing pressure from sustainability groups.

In January, Morrisons announced plans to remove “use by” dates on milk and encourage consumers to use a “sniff test” instead to determine if it is okay to consume.

Source: bbc.com