Noa Moussa, edited by Gauthier Delomez 06:00, August 04, 2022
The British supermarket chain Waitrose has decided to remove expiry dates on all non-fresh food to prevent food that is still edible from being thrown away.
This fight against waste echoes in France, where expiry dates are responsible for 20% of household food waste.
Many French people throw away food as soon as the expiry date has passed.
"As soon as I see that the date has passed at home, I do not consume because I am afraid of having diseases, suddenly I prefer to throw away", explains for example Lorina, 21 years old.
A reflex shared by many Britons, says the Waitrose chain of stores.
It has decided to remove expiry dates on all non-fresh food because it believes that far too many people throw away their products when they are still edible.
>> Find Europe Matin in replay and podcast here
What is the difference between use-by date and minimum durability?
In France, this waste may be due to the lack of knowledge of one in two French people about how expiry dates work.
The expiry date - to be consumed by - and the date of minimum durability - to be consumed preferably before - have nothing to do with each other.
“People will tend to, as soon as they see a date, consider that if it has passed, the product cannot be consumed”, points out Simon Foucault, head of public affairs at the anti-waste start-up Too Good. To Go.
"A date that can be found on an ultra-fresh product, indeed after this, the product must absolutely not be consumed", he underlines, "while a date that we will find on canned , on a packet of rice, on a packet of pasta, the product can be consumed without problems once the date has passed."
If it says "best before" on your product, it's better to look at it, smell it and taste it before throwing it away!