Since British consumers throw away almost £60 worth of food and drink each month, Asda is removing best before dates from nearly 250 fresh fruit and vegetable goods.
Beginning on September 1, the grocery store chain will stop putting dates on vegetables in all of its UK locations, including citrus fruits, potatoes, cauliflower, and carrots.
According to the merchant, dates will be replaced with a new identifier that shop employees will use to guarantee quality and freshness.
In addition, Asda offers recommendations on how to store, prepare, and decrease waste for fresh food as well as online and packaging information.
According to the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), which claims that “best before” dates on fruits and vegetables are useless and contribute to climate change, the typical household discards £60 worth of food and beverages each month.
‘Reducing food waste in our company and in customers’ homes is a priority, and we are continually looking at new methods to accomplish this,’ Asda director of technology Andy Cockshaw said.
“We know that in the present environment, when many families are dealing with the cost of living problem and are striving to save money wherever they can, this has become more crucial than ever for consumers.”
We are thrilled by this initiative by Asda to help address food waste in our homes, said Catherine David, director of partnership and transformation at WRAP.
According to our study, date labels on produce are superfluous and may save the equivalent of seven million shopping baskets worth of food from going into the trash.
It has a significant impact on what we use and what we discard whether a product has a date label or not.
By removing date markings from fresh fruit, more shops may reduce food waste by letting consumers make their own decisions.
While Tesco set the standard by eliminating dates from more than 100 goods in 2018, Waitrose and Marks & Spencer have stated this year that they are doing the same.
Morrisons revealed plans to do away with “use by” dates on milk in January and to urge customers to conduct a “sniff test” to assess if it is safe to eat.