Food Labelling Plans

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) believes the idea is misguided.

“Scrapping best-before dates won’t reduce food waste. Customer education will,” says Stephen Robertson, director of the BRC. “Date labels are there to help customers but they need to understand what they mean. Retailers are working with the Government to improve understanding and to help customers make better choices about buying, storing and using food at home,” he adds.

The UK attitude to food guidelines is often compared to a more relaxed European approach. “Delis in Spain keep blue cheese a year after it’s introduced because they know their customers understand that it matures with age so, contrary to being inedible, it’s actually in its prime,” says John Caffrey, owner of the Chilli Lime Deli, Blackburn.

“Education is the problem and therefore has to form part of the solution, but changes to the system could help. I think it would be good to just have a ‘used-by’ date and lose the overly cautious ‘best-before’ which can be unnecessarily tight,” he adds.

Mr Caffrey argues that customers are confused by the multiple labellings and often throw food out long before they need to. “Paprika is one example,” he says.

“It has a nine or ten month ‘best-before’ and yet it would easily last two years. I understand why we have these regulations but we need to be sensible about it. At the moment they prohibit both retailer and consumer,” concludes Mr Caffrey.