Ocado bins ‘best before’ labels in MoS victory

ONLINE grocer Ocado is to scrap ‘best before’ labels on some fruit and vegetables in an effort to eradicate food waste.

The move is expected to stop thousands of tons of edible food being needlessly thrown away, by letting customers judge when something is still good to eat.

It is another major boost to The Mail on Sunday’s War On Food Waste campaign, which was launched in June with the aim of cutting by 30 per cent the amount of food being dumped in bins by households each week.

Ocado will launch the initiative on Tuesday for items in its fresh produce range, including apples and citrus fruits. A spokesman said: ‘We have removed the best before date from a number of our Ocado Own Range produce.

‘This is to help fight food waste and to encourage customers to make their own decision as to when food is past its best.’

Last year, an investigation by the MoS found households were throwing away £900million of edible food each year because supermarkets had misleading ‘best before’ labels on fruit, vegetables and dairy products.

Best before refers to food quality, meaning it is still safe to eat when past its best. Antiwaste charity WRAP said: ‘Getting rid of “best before” dates on fruit and veg can help reduce the amount of food we throw away by 50,000 tons a year, so we fully support Ocado’s move.’