Mum shares hidden supermarket hack to show if fruit and vegetables will expire

A savvy mum left shoppers astounded with her clever tip to reduce food waste by paying attention to a little-known supermarket label detail.

The UK is grappling with a staggering amount of food waste, as highlighted by WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme), which found Brits discard enough vegetables annually to fill the iconic Wembley Stadium's 90,000 seats eight times.

Astonishingly, nearly 3million whole potatoes, 1million bananas, and 2.1million carrots are tossed out each day from homes nationwide.

Enter the Money Mum, who not only penned the Sunday Times bestseller 'Save Yourself Happy' but is also a wizard at snagging deals in the discount aisles of supermarkets. As a personal finance guru, she's been dishing out advice to help families navigate the escalating cost-of-living crisis.

Her latest revelation involves a simple trick to extend the shelf life of fruit and veg using a secret code on their labels.

In a post to her 440,000 Instagram followers, Gemma shared: "Ok did you know this! A is the month so Jan. The number is the date so say the 18th. Stop getting food waste."

She highlighted the codes on leeks at a Tesco store, explaining how to spot the freshest produce. She noted a package marked 'F15' indicates it was packed on June 15, saying: "Want to know a hack for buying freshers food? The F is the month! So June if F, and that is month six. January would be A."

Gemma continued: "It means you can buy the fresher food rather than it going off quickly - wasting food and money."

A Tesco staff member previously discussed the coding system. In her demonstration using packs of mangetout, Gemma showed one with 'A3' and another with 'A6'.

The letter represents the month, while the number corresponds to the day; 'A' stands for January, so '3' would be the third day of the month, and '6' the sixth.

Reacting to Money Mum's revelation, a fellow supermarket employee commented: "Until I started working in Tesco doing the reductions. I had no idea about this. It's such a good thing for helping reduce waste."

Others chimed in on the usefulness of the tip, with one person saying: "It's meant to stop so much waste."