British food items not to show ‘best before’ date any more
April 18th, 2011 - 4:16 pm ICT by IANSLondon, April 18 (IANS) Food items sold in Britain will no longer display “best before” dates, as lawmakers believe such labelling encourages people to throw away edibles even though they are often safe to eat.
Over 13.7 billion pounds worth of food and drink is thrown away each year, with each household paying an average of 680 pounds for uneaten items, says the Daily Express.
Britons throw away over 10 million tonnes of waste each year, including five million potatoes a day, 4.4 million apples, a million loaves of bread and a million slices of ham.
Foods more prone to “going off” or that can cause food poisoning, like fish, prawns and eggs, will have warning labels.
Supermarket promotions, saying “buy one get one free” often led to over-buying, officials said.
Officials said they wanted “best before” dates to be scrapped in favour of “use by” dates, to make things less confusing.
“Display until” labels and “sell by” dates may also be removed.
Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman is expected to announce the change next month.
- UK's Food and Farming minister doesn't even know price of bread - Aug 02, 2010
- Italy declares war on Tesco's fake lasagne sandwich, Chianti - Sep 20, 2010
- Chinese woman held for selling outdated meat - Jun 17, 2011
- Turkey Recalled due to potential contamination - Nov 16, 2010
- UK church asks schools not to serve 'halal meat' to pupils - Feb 13, 2011
- Wasteful Brits 'dump millions of tonnes of healthy fruit, veggies every year' - Aug 01, 2010
- Ignore Expiration Dates, Listen To Your Senses: Says Study - Feb 21, 2010
- Britain hoards 295 mn pounds worth of outdated food - Jan 06, 2011
- Banana UK's most wasted food - Mar 02, 2010
- Cooked - not raw - food provides more energy - Nov 08, 2011
- A chicken with four legs! - Mar 22, 2012
- Surprising Health Food Imposters One Should Know About - Jan 15, 2011
- Buy-one-get-two free offers increase 4 times in a year - Nov 07, 2010
- Food wasted in western countries may feed world's starving seven times over - Jul 06, 2009
- Beijing cracks down on illegal cooking oil - Jul 13, 2011
Tags: 10 million, apples, best before dates, british food, britons, eggs, environment secretary, favour, food and drink, food items, food poisoning, household, lawmakers, potatoes, prawns, promotions, spelman, supermarket, tonnes, warning labels