Tesco will scrap ‘use by’ dates on 30 own brand products including yoghurt in bid to stop ‘perfectly edible food from being thrown away’
- Tesco will remove ‘use by’ dates on 30 of its own brand dairy products
- The dates will be removed from foods such as yoghurt to help prevent waste
- Survey shows 54,000 tonnes of yoghurt is wasted by shoppers in UK every year
Tesco is set scrap ‘use by’ dates on 30 of its own brand products in a bid to curb excessive food waste.
The supermarket giant will remove the dates – which advise customers to consume foods before a specified period – from all its own brand yoghurt products.
Changes will be made to the chain’s Greek Style Yogurt, Creamfields Greek Style Yogurt, Creamfields Berry Medley Low Fat Yogurt and Finest Lemon Curd Yogurt products.
However, the products will still have a label, containing a ‘best before’ date instead.
Tesco said that eliminating ‘use by’ dates would ‘prevent perfectly edible food from being thrown away’ by allowing shoppers to ‘use their own judgement on whether to eat a product’.
Tesco has announced it will be removing ‘use by’ dates on all of its own brand yoghurt products
The chain’s decision comes after recent data from a survey by food waste prevention group Wrap revealed that shoppers in Britain wasted a colossal 54,000 tonnes of yogurt per year, equivalent to 9% of all purchases.
Tesco also made a similar move in 2018, by removing ‘use by’ dates from 170 fruit and vegetable products in a previous effort to discourage food waste.
This saw the removal of labels from products including potatoes, tomatoes, apples, onions, lemons and other citrus fruit.
The decision by Tesco to ditch ‘use by’ dates on yoghurts is in line with that of other major UK supermarkets.
Sainsbury’s, Asda and Co-Op all axed ‘use by’ dates on their yoghurt products last year.
In Britain, the ‘best before’ normally serves as a a guideline for quality, taste and freshness, and is added by the manufacturer.
‘Best before’ dates are not to be confused with ‘use by’ dates, the two being entirely different.
‘We have made the decision to remove ‘use by’ dates on yogurts where it is safe to do so, after extensive testing which reveals that the acidity of the product acts as a natural preservative, stated Amy Walker, Tesco’s lead technical manager for dairy, according to The Mirror.
‘However, consumers should always use their judgement to determine if the quality is acceptable.’
‘These lines represent a significant proportion of our own brand yogurts and we hope to phase the change in between now and the end of June.’
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