Élodie Goulesque, edited by Gauthier Delomez with AFP 8:47 p.m., August 02, 2022

Best before dates on nearly 500 products will be withdrawn, British supermarkets Waitrose have announced.

The purpose of this decision is to avoid discouraging its customers from consuming food that is still good and thus to fight against food waste.

British supermarkets Waitrose announced Monday to withdraw the recommended consumption dates on nearly 500 products, to avoid discouraging its customers from consuming foods that are still good and thus fight against food waste.

From September, Waitrose will remove 'best before' labels, an indicative date beyond which it is safe to eat a product, on nearly 500 fresh produce, particularly fruit and vegetables under packaging, the company said in a statement.

Invite customers to “use good judgment”

This measure "aims to reduce the volume of food waste in British households by asking customers to exercise judgment" when deciding whether a product is still edible, added this high-end supermarket chain.

"Food waste is still a major problem" and British households "throw away 4.5 million tonnes of edible food every year," said Marija Rompani, sustainability director of the John Lewis department store group, parent company of Waitrose.

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The "best before" indicator is essentially linked to the taste or nutritional quality of a product, and corresponds to the "minimum durability date" in France.

On the other hand, the mention "use by" (consume before), which appears on perishable products, is an imperative mention and its non-compliance presents health risks, in the same way as the expiry date across the Channel.

Save seven million baskets of food

“We estimate that removing dates on fresh fruit and vegetables could save the equivalent of seven million baskets of food from the bin,” according to Waitrose.

The company is following in the footsteps of other British brands, such as the sector giant Tesco, which had removed the recommended consumption dates on a hundred products from 2018, or more recently Marks and Spencer which had done the same on 300 references. .

Morrisons, another supermarket chain, announced in January the removal not of the recommended date but of the best before date on 90% of its private label milk, encouraging its customers to smell the contents of the bottle to know s is always good.