Supermarkets are being “overly cautious” in setting best-before dates and could help families to avoid wasting food by adding an extra day or two to the recommended life of some products, according to a government advisory body.
Potatoes, apples, mince and sliced ham provide the “greatest opportunity to challenge the product life” without sacrificing safety or quality, the report by the Waste & Resources Action Programme says.
It found that shoppers could save £600 million a year, or about £25 per household, if they were given an extra day to eat food before its official expiry date. This would result in about 250,000 fewer tonnes of food being thrown away each year, about 5 per cent of the total “avoidable food waste,” it said. The