Know your labels

Save your food from landfill

In the UK, we waste an incredible 6.5 million tonnes of food every year – the same weight as 2 million full bin lorries or 8 million elephants! That’s enough to fill an Olympic size swimming pool every three hours in the UK alone, over 7,000 annually.

Unbelievably, over 4.5 million tonnes of that waste is still edible and could be saved from the bin.

Part of the problem is confusion about the dates on food packaging. So here are some handy tips to help demystify food packaging and ensure your food can be enjoyed for as long as possible.

Beyond Best Before

This means that your food will be at its BEST before the date given. It’s a quality stamp not a safety guide.  It doesn’t mean you should chuck it in the bin at the stroke of midnight.  

With proper storage - for instance in its original packaging and sealed with a clip or in an airtight container - lots of foodstuffs can be eaten long after their best before date, including:

  • Crisps can still be edible for a good month after their best before deadline

  • Biscuits and cereals can last for another six months

  • Baked beans and other tinned goods can last in your store cupboard for a whole year, as can sweets and bottled pasta sauce

  • And don’t throw away that packet of dried pasta that you’ve found at the back of a cupboard.  If stored correctly, it should still be safe to eat around three years after its best before date has expired.

Use By

This is one to pay attention to. This is about food safety, not food quality.  

You can’t always see or smell the bacteria that causes food to spoil - so even though an item might still look tempting, it could still make you unwell. A quick sniff at a bottle of milk will tell you whether it's off but other bacteria is harder to identify if you don't know what you're looking for. 

Don’t take a risk on your health and eat any food after its use by date.  But, if you have a freezer you can store surplus food in there - any time up to and including the USE BY date.  Just make sure you make a note of how long it will be freezer safe.

Display Until/Sell By

These labels are for the supermarkets, not for people at home, so you don’t need to worry about these – there’s enough to read on food packages as it is!

For more information on food storage and tips on how to make your food go as far as it can go to:  www.lovefoodhatewaste.com