Aldi joins flurry of UK supermarkets removing ‘best before’ dates including Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Morrisons, Asda, Waitrose and M&S
The flurry of supermarkets ditching 'best before' dates in order to help cut down food waste continues apace, with Aldi today becoming the latest retailer to commit to ending the practice across 60 of its fresh fruit and vegetable lines in the UK.
The German supermarket giant, which has rapidly expanded to become Britain's fifth largest supermarket over the past decade, said it would remove 'best before' dates from the labels of fruit and vegetable products, such as pears, apples, citrus, fruits, potatoes, carrots and onions, by the end of 2022.
Labels showing 'best before' dates for food products differ from 'use-by' dates, as the former is intended to be more of a rough guide for when produce is at its best, but many consumers confuse the two, which is thought to encourage wasteful behaviour in the home.
It comes just days after rival supermarket chain Sainsbury's announced plans to replace 'best before' labels on 276 of its own-brand products with a new on-pack message stating that 'no date helps reduce waste'.
It follows a groundswell on the issue across the UK food retail sector this summer, with Asda, Tesco, Morrisons, Waitrose, and M&S, among those to have removed 'best before' dates on some of their products, amid growing concern that such arbitrary date labels encourage consumers to throw away perfectly edible food.
Aldi said its announcement today was designed to support its target to reduce food waste by 20 per cent by 2025, and to halve it by 2030.
Liz Fox, corporate responsibility director at Aldi UK, said driving down food waste would help it to save money and offer cheaper prices to customers.
"And by getting rid of these dates on packaging, we can help customers get even better value by reducing the amount of food that goes to waste at home," she added.
Aldi also said its partnership with food sharing app Neighbourly had enabled it to donate 700,000 meals during the UK's summer holidays. That comes on top of its efforts to further cut down on food waste by selling products from its stores nearing their 'use-by' dates via the Too Good To Go app.
"This latest step, together with our partnerships with Neighbourly and Too Good To Go, is all part of our efforts to provide affordable, sustainable and responsible products for all our customers," said Fox.
