ORDOÑEZ SANCHEZ KAREN ALITZEL 1ª E

GASTRONOMÌA

M&S scraps 'best before' dates on fruit and veg to cut

food waste
Marks & Spencer is taking "best before" dates off more than 300 fruit and
vegetable items to tackle food waste.
They will be replaced by a code that M&S staff can use to check freshness and
quality.
Tesco, Morrisons and Co-op are among supermarkets that have scrapped "use by"
dates on some of their products.
Waste & Resources Action Programme (Wrap) said 70% of the UK's food waste is
binned in homes, mounting up to 4.5 million tonnes of edible food a year.
Catherine David, director of collaboration and change at the charity, added: "We
urge more supermarkets to get ahead on food waste by axing date labels from
fresh produce, allowing people to use their own judgment."
 Morrisons scraps 'use by' date on milk in favour of sniff test
 Co-op supermarket scraps yoghurt use-by dates in bid to cut food
waste
 Tesco ditches 'best before' dates on more fruit and veg

Use by labels are the dates until which perishable food can be cooked and
consumed safely. Best before guidance, meanwhile, is for when the product should
be consumed to get the best quality, taste and texture.
The Food Standards Agency says it is up to manufacturers to decide whether to
apply a use by or best before date  on their products. It will depend on factors
such as how the food is made and how risky it is, it said.
The move away from best before dates could also help supermarket profits as they
battle to keep the cost of everyday essentials down as food prices soar.
Tesco scrapped best before dates on more than 100 fruit and vegetable
products in 2018.
In January this year, Morrisons announced its plan to remove use by dates from
90% of its own brand milk and encouraged customers to use a "sniff test" instead
before throwing products away.
And in April the Co-op announced plans to ditch use by dates on its own-brand
yoghurt in favour of a best before date as guidance.
M&S has committed to halve food waste by 2030 as part of its sustainability
roadmap, with all of its edible surplus to be redistributed by 2025.
Andrew Clappen, director of food technology at M&S, said it needed to "do all we
can to make sure none of it gets thrown away" and encouraged customers to "get
creative with leftovers".

Bibliografy:
Beneficios de la minimización de residuos. (2012, 23 marzo). Agència de Residus de
Catalunya.https://residus.gencat.cat/es/ambits_dactuacio/prevencio/
estudi_de_minimitzacio_de_residus_especials_1/
beneficis_de_la_minimitzacio_de_residus/
 ORDOÑEZ SANCHEZ KAREN ALITZEL 1ª E
GASTRONOMÌA

Opinion

From my point of view I found the proposal in this new, important as well as
interesting in terms of lettig the consumer or buyer to make their own decision
regardless to buy a product without expiration date, more on the side of food
reduction, knowing that this can be an organic residue.
raising awareness in consumers, is a very effective way to know if the purchaser is
wondering if the expiration date is something important and how it would help to
generate less waste, at the end of the day it is their right to stand out for that.
It seems to me a vital issue, that manufacturing is concerned with the reduction of
waste in food intake, since it helps to decreace the amount of urban solid waste
that is destined for landfills and treatment plants, thus preventing soil pollution
problems or the emission of harmful gases into the atmosphere.
Good waste management not only helps a company to have less economic
expenses, but also to work as a team in order to take care of the environment,
taking into account the great benefits for human being, generating savings to an
entire chain, both human and to the biodegradable world.