It is the label printed on most of your groceries – and failing to read it appropriately can cost you thousands a 12 months.
As supermarket prices proceed to rise – Coles and Woolworths posted an annualized increase of 9.6 per cent in April, in accordance with a recent evaluation by investment bank UBS (figures Coles disputed) – consumers are on the lookout for ways to lower their grocery bills and reduce food waste.
Knowing the excellence between “best before” and “use by” dates is a “fairly easy” solution to achieve each.
“Many consumers don’t understand the difference between use-by date and use-by date. This confusion leads them to throw away tons of food that continues to be edible,” University of Tasmania lecturers Louise Grimmer and Nathan Kilah explain in an article for The Conversation.
For anyone who needs a refresher, the expiration date, in accordance with Woolworths, is the one to look out for.
Marked on perishable foods akin to ready meals or protein, the “use by” date indicates when the food have to be consumed for health and safety reasons.
“All the time persist with the best-before date as expired food may cause harm or illness, including food poisoning if consumed. Food past its use-by date mustn’t be cooked, frozen or eaten and ought to be discarded, the food giant said.
“Food may smell and look good despite its best-before date, however the bacteria that cause food poisoning should be present. Persist with the “higher secure than sorry” philosophy.
Then again, the best-before date – found on dry products, canned products and fruit and veggies – is used to “indicate quality reasonably than safety”.
“Eating food past its use-by date might not be dangerous; you may notice that a few of its quality, flavor or texture has been lost,” said Woolworths.
“As with best-before dates, following food storage instructions ensures that the product will retain its quality for so long as possible.”
To encourage shoppers to respect this latest date, Marks & Spencer last week became the newest major UK retailer to remove best-before dates from its fresh milk.
After potatoes and bread, milk is the third most wasted food in England – and M&S is encouraging customers to take the “old-fashioned sniff test” to see if their dairy continues to be drinkable.
“Principal reason [milk is wasted] they do not drink before their best-before date,” Catherine David of the sustainability charity Wrap told The Guardian.
“By changing the best-before date, M&S immediately helps its customers save money and reduce waste, giving them more time to eat the milk they buy.”
In Australia, research last 12 months by Wrap and Mayonnaise Hellmans found that one in three households wasted the equivalent of a grocery bag each week, costing them greater than $2,000 a 12 months.
In accordance with the survey, essentially the most often thrown away products are vegetables (29 percent), followed by fruit (22 percent), green leafy vegetables (24 percent) and baked goods (21 percent).
Wrap Asia-Pacific’s managing director Claire Kneller said Australians waste a lot food a 12 months that it might fill the Melbourne Cricket Ground ten times.
“Half of that happens at the buyer end of the provision chain, where food is consumed,” Kneller said.
“Every 12 months, households throw away a median of $2,170 to $2,700 value of food. But our latest research shows that when shown how much money could be saved by stopping food waste, most said they’d be more resourceful.”