Date labels and storage guidance
Preventing consumer food waste through improving the application and understanding of date labels and storage guidance
WRAP research has revealed that as much as 3 million tonnes of food is not being stored in the best way, or is being thrown away due to confusion over date labels. WRAP, the Food Standards Agency (FSA), representatives from the food industry, consumer groups, and UK Government departments are working closely to help reduce food waste by improving consumer understanding of date labelling and food storage guidance, and their application.
Date labels
Last year, the Government published the Food Matters Report, which emphasised the need for more consistent and accessible advice to consumers around food. Date labelling is a key part of this.
Most pre-packed food is legally required to have a date label. These are intended to help consumers know when certain foods may become unsafe to eat, and when other foods may not be of the best quality, but still would be safe to eat. Consumers increasingly rely on date labels as a means of knowing what to eat when, but don’t always understand what the different date labels mean. This confusion can result in consumers unnecessarily throwing away food that may still be perfectly safe to eat, or potentially eating food that may no longer be safe to eat.
The work WRAP, the FSA and others are involved with aims to:
Improve consumer understanding and confidence in date labels;
Clarify the existing guidance to industry on the use of date labels;
Enable changes to industry practice that will lead to greater consistency and simplification in the use of date labels
This will help make it much clearer that:
Use by dates are the main indicator of food safety and should be restricted to those situations where there is a genuine food safety risk;
Best before dates are an indicator of food quality not safety, meaning that food may be safe to eat after this date, although not at it’s best quality;
Consumers can ignore other date labels such as display until and sell by. Retailers use these for stock control and we will work with industry to investigate whether these could be replaced or made less visible.
Government, the food industry, enforcement agencies, WRAP and the FSA, are currently undertaking a full review and updating of the FSA guidance on food labelling. The FSA lead on food labelling policy for the UK, and this is the key document that manufacturers and retailers rely upon in labelling their food. The intention of updating the document is to ensure much clearer and more consistent messages are conveyed to consumers regarding food quality, safety and storage, through labelling that is easier for them to understand and have confidence in.
WRAP and the FSA are discussing how communications around date labelling can be more integrated and effective, and industry will have a key role to play in helping to deliver these messages. Love Food Hate Waste will expand upon the practical and helpful advice it already gives consumers
Storage guidance
For date labelling to be effective food needs to be stored in the right way. However, WRAP’s research has revealed that over 2 million tonnes of food is not being stored as it should, which could impact both on food spoiling before it should do (potentially creating food waste) and on food safety. WRAP is working with industry to deliver more consistent and clearer storage guidance and freezing advice and giving consumers greater confidence around cooking and freezing food.
Major retailers and brands have already taken action, for example, improving in-store and on-line consumer advice on how to store fresh fruit & vegetables.
