As I expect most of us reading this know, a lot of food waste is caused by our throwing out foods which are past the their sell-by dates (or any of the other confusing labels supermarkets use – sell-by dates are actually for stock control in supermarkets, not about safety). Often the food is actually perfectly OK to eat. I was interested to see this piece in the online BBC News about a supermarket in Boston, USA, which is only going to sell food past its sell-by date. (The article also contains safety information, in case you are now worried about mass outbreaks of food poisoning in Boston!)
Some of the UK supermarkets are at least trying to simplify the situation. At a recent food conference a Tesco spokesperson said that they were going to phase out “sell by” dates (which are more about look and taste than safety) and use only “use by”, which means it’s not safe to use past that date, and “best before”, which applies to long-life goods, where the issue is quality more than safety. (For a clear explanation of current UK labelling, see this government description.)
Bev