New Labelling Guidelines to Cut Food Waste

As reported by the Guardian, according to Wrap (the Waste and Resources Action Programme) 5.3m tonnes of still-edible food is thrown away each year in the UK alone, costing the average family £680 a year – or more than £50 a month. It appears that confusing food labelling in supermarkets may be partly to blame for a huge waste of edible products. Contrary to a more direct and clearer labelling policy in countries like Italy and France, the UK food labels used to include ‘sell by’, ‘display until’, ‘best before’ and ‘use by’ ultimately making it all very confusing for shoppers. The newly enforced government guidelines rule that packaging should only carry ‘use by’ or ‘best before’ dates, while ‘sell by’ and ‘display until’ labels are removed from supermarket packaging to avoid confusion that ultimately results in good edible food being thrown away for no reason.