A BIG supermarket chain is making a major change to more than 150 of its products.
Co-op is set to remove best before labels on a variety of fruit and veg in a bid to avoid food waste.
Best-before dates are put on foods as a guide to quality, not safety.
That means you can eat the food after the figure printed, but it might not be as tasty.
From next week, the Co-op will remove best before dates from over 150 fresh products, including apples, broccoli, carrots, onions, oranges, potatoes and tomatoes.
A small number of more perishable items will still have the labels.
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The chain, which has 2,500 stores in the UK, trialled the move on 20 products last year.
Shops will now use encrypted codes so that workers can keep track of how long produce has been on the shelf.
Adele Balmforth at Co-op said: “As we face into a climate, environmental and cost-of-living crisis we are committed to helping our customers cut food waste in the home and save money.
"Date codes can drive decisions in the home, and result in good food being thrown away – which has a cost to both people and to our planet."
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Co-op is the latest supermarket to introduce the measure on a large scale.
Tesco ditched best before dates on its own brand of fruit and veg back in 2018.
It said removing the dates would stop shoppers confusing the use-by date with the best-before date.
Eating food after its use by date (unless it has been frozen on or before its use by date) could result in food poisoning.
In September last year, Waitrose also ditched best before dates on fruit and veg.
The dates were also taken off indoor and outdoor plants.
Over 300 fruit and veg products no longer have best before dates on them at Marks & Spencer.
Asda ditched the dates from almost 250 of its fresh fruit and vegetable products last September.
Tips on how to reduce food waste
Making sure you don’t waste food is a great way to save money.
Meal plans are a good way to cut down on pointless waste.
Try and plan the meals you make around ingredients you can use more than once.
You can also freeze things before they go off.
For example, fruit and veg can be saved if chopped up and portioned in the freezer.
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Put food in freezer bags and make sure you write a date on them, so you know when they were frozen.
You can also make big batches of meals in one go and then freeze them, as you might be able to save money when buying in bulk.
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