Sell-By Date Binned In Push To Cut Food Waste

The "sell-by" date on food packaging is to be removed in a bid to cut £12bn worth of good food which ends up in the bin, in new Government measures.

Under Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) plans, the terms "sell by" and "display until" will be phased out.

These are only relevant to the shops for stock control and can be confusing to customers.

Instead, packaging will only carry one of two phrases - "use by" or "best before".

Caroline Spelman, Secretary of State for the Environment said: "We want to tackle the confusion around food labelling that contributes to the amount of good food that gets wasted.

"We want to simplify this so that you can see when a food should be 'used by' for food safety reasons - if it's perishable.

"Then we want 'best before' as an alternative for foods that simply deteriorate in quality."

The changes aim to reduce the amount of food thrown away unnecessarily.

According to the Waste and Resources Action Programme (Wrap) , households in the UK throw away 8.3m tons of food and drink every year - 60% of that could be avoided.

The campaign has claimed families are wasting up to £50 every month throwing out food that is still in good condition and edible.

Foods likely to require a "use-by" date include soft cheese, ready-prepared meals and smoked fish.

However, items such as biscuits, jams, pickles, crisps and tinned food are likely only to require labels that read "best before".