MARKS & Spencer is to remove best before dates from a range of its fresh produce in a bid to reduce food waste.
Over 300 varieties of fruits and vegetables – equating to 85% of the supermarket’s offering – will have best before labelling removed in place of a code which M&S staff can use to ‘ensure freshness and quality is maintained’.
The supermarket said the move comes in a bid to encourage customers to use their judgement on food and thus hopefully throw away less edible food. Research from WRAP shows that an estimated 6.6 million tonnes of food is thrown away by UK households a year.
Andrew Clappen, director of food technology at Marks and Spencer, said, “We’re determined to tackle food waste – our teams and suppliers work hard to deliver fresh, delicious, responsibly sourced produce at great value and we need to do all we can to make sure none of it gets thrown away. To do that, we need to be innovative and ambitious – removing best before dates where safe to do so, trialling new ways to sell our products and galvanising our customers to get creative with leftovers and embrace change.
“The other side of the challenge is making sure anything edible we don’t sell reaches those who need it most. By partnering with Neighbourly since 2015 we’ve ensured over 44 million meals are redistributed to local communities. Our promise as we aim for our target of halving food waste is to keep searching for solutions while we maintain the standards and value our customers expect.”
Catherine David, director of collaboration and change at WRAP, added, “We’re thrilled to see this move from M&S, which will reduce food waste and help tackle the climate crisis. Removing dates on fresh fruit and veg can save the equivalent of seven million shopping baskets of food being binned in our homes.
“We urge more supermarkets to get ahead on food waste by axing date labels from fresh produce, allowing people to use their own judgement. See Love Food Hate Waste for tips on how to reduce food waste, save money and fight climate change – did you know that storing most fruit and veg in the fridge, below 5oC, at home, can extend their life span by days, weeks and even months (in the case of apples and potatoes)?”
