Best before dates on food packaging could soon be a thing of the past after Tesco UK has become the first major retailer to scrap them.
From today the labels will be removed from over 70 lines of fruit and vegetables in an effort to reduce food waste.
We’re removing Best Before dates from nearly 70 fruit and veg products to help reduce #foodwaste #notimeforwaste
— Tesco News (@tesconews) May 21, 2018
Around €700 million worth of edible food ends up in Irish rubbish bins every year, but Tesco Ireland says it has no plan to follow in the footsteps of its UK counterpart.
In a statement Tesco Ireland says:
At Tesco Ireland we are committed to tackling the issue of food waste. As the first retailer to launch a nationwide food surplus programme, our innovative partnership with FoodCloud has led the way in tackling food waste in Ireland, flourishing from a one store trial in 2013 to working together to donate over 5 million meals of surplus food to more than 300 community groups across Ireland.
While we have no immediate plans to introduce this initiative, we will be keeping it under review. We have made a commitment that no food safe for human consumption will go to waste in Tesco Ireland stores by 2020.