Tesco is removing “best before” labels from many of its fresh produce lines, which it says will help reduce waste.
The supermarket will remove the advice from about 70 pre-packaged produce lines to avoid “perfectly edible food” being thrown away.
The items that will lose the label include apples, potatoes, tomatoes, lemons, other citrus fruit and onions.
“Best before” labels indicate that the quality of a product may deteriorate after the date indicated.
In contrast “use by” dates indicate when it becomes less safe to consume the food.
“We know some customers may be confused by the difference between ‘best before’ and ‘use by’ dates on food and this can lead to perfectly edible items being thrown away before they need to be discarded,” said Mark Little, Tesco’s head of food waste.
Tesco said removing the information on the label would encourage customers to make their own decisions about the freshness of produce.
However, all the produce affected will be items sold in bags or boxes and so are less easy to handle. Individual items, such as loose lemons or onions, already do not carry “best before” labels.
The supermarket said that although customers would no longer be able to differentiate between bags of produce to determine how fresh they were at purchase, there were “rigorous stock rotation procedures in place” to ensure older items did not remain on shelves.
Source: BBC news
