Asda: supermarket to scrap ‘use by’ dates on its own brand yoghurts in a bid to reduce food waste

The move comes after Waste and Resources Action Programme revealed 50% of yoghurt waste comes from unopened cartons
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Asda has announced it will remove the "use by" dates across a range of its own brand yoghurts and replace them with "best before" dates instead.

The supermarket giant will make the change across products such as Asda natural yoghurt, Greek Yoghurt and Extra Special Strawberry and Hazelnut in a bid to save money and combat waste.

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"Best before" dates are about the quality of food, while "use by" dates are used to show when a product is no longer safe to eat.

This move will allow customers to use their own judgement when food is off. According to the supermarket, it sells around 455,000 yoghurt products a week from its 28 lines, and the change will gradually happen over the next few weeks.

The retailer said the decision came after data from the climate action group NGO Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) revealed 50% of all yoghurt wasted from UK households comes from unopened cartons.

The labelling itself has also been cited as the reason for the waste, as an additional 70% of yoghurt waste comes from households not "being used in time".

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Asda said it has conducted "robust food safety and quality evaluations" on all of the products it will make packaging changes to.

Paul Gillow, vice president of fresh and frozen foods at Asda, said: “We are always looking at ways we can help customers reduce food waste in the home, and with research from WRAP saying 54,000 tonnes of edible yoghurt is thrown away unnecessarily each year we are hopeful this change will both make a big difference to the environment and save customers money at the same time.”

Catherine David, director of collaboration & change, WRAP, said: "WRAP is thrilled to see our partner Asda make these changes on yoghurts – which will help reduce food waste in our homes. Wasting food feeds climate change and costs us money – with the average family spending £700 a year on good food which ends up in the bin. Our research shows applying the appropriate date label to products like yoghurts can help reduce the amount of good food that is thrown in the bin."

Previously, Asda announced the removal of "best before" dates on almost 250 fresh fruit and vegetable products to cut food waste. It said it would remove the labels from produce including citrus fruits, potatoes, cauliflowers and carrots across all its UK stores from September 2022. The dates will be replaced by a new code, which will ensure quality and freshness.

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