Buy food past best before date for 20p
Convenience stores across Sussex are to start selling selected products past their best before date for just 20p.
The aim is to keep more food in the human food chain, as the best before date relates to quality, not the safety of the product.
The Reducing Our Foodprint initiative, with products being reduced to just 20p, was introduced by Southern Co-op last year in 13 stores elsewhere, and the scheme is now being expanded to Sussex.
It means food past its best before date can now be bought at a special price at more than 100 Co-operative Food stores across the south of England.
All store waste is currently diverted from landfill, with food broken down to produce biogas and bio-fertiliser, and this will reduce the amount sent off for this anaerobic digestion process.
Simon Eastwood, chief operating officer for retail at Southern Co-op, said: “Customer feedback from the trials of this scheme has been
largely positive with many of the products being snapped up as soon as they get reduced.
“There are a large number
of products that are still good enough to eat past their best before date – many of us are already familiar with this in our home environment so this just takes it one step further.
“The first stage in the fight against food waste is to make sure there aren’t products reaching their best before date. But if they do, we will now be reducing them to 20p to try to keep them in the food chain and improve sustainability.”
These stores in the Chichester and Bognor Regis areas are now included in the Reducing our Foodprint initiative: Bognor Regis’s Hawthorn Road and Rose Green Road; Bosham’s Delling Lane; Chichester’s Bognor Road, Lavant Road, Oliver Whitby Road, Spitalfield Lane and Stockbridge Road; East Wittering’s Cakeham Road; Selsey’s High Street; and Yapton’s Main Road.
Fresh products will be sold up to two days after the best before date and ambient products will be sold up to seven days after the best before date.
The Food Standards Agency advises that products past their best before date are safe to consume but may not be at the optimum quality intended by the producer.