Food waste has become dangerous, especially in wealthy, developed countries, but also in the rest of the world.

We recently wrote about the fact that Serbs throw away an average of 2 million kilograms of food a day. To further prevent unnecessary dumping of expired food, the European Union plans to introduce a new law on stores.

Above all, Aldi, Rewe, Lidl, but also focused on other markets. According to the Handelsblatt.de portal, the current law should go into effect in the next few months, and this means: the expiration date on various food products will change.

You should also pay attention to these omissions in our store.

Overall, the first changes to the new European law will focus on foods that have a particularly long shelf life. That is, if stored properly, food with a “particularly long shelf life” will not have a “use by” label (indicates the last recommended date by which you can eat high-quality food).

Therefore, the change will primarily affect products such as rice, pasta, coffee, oil and tea.

The second change refers to the label “best to use by then”, which means the date until the food is at its highest level of taste and quality. This note should either be omitted or replaced by another, such as: “Often well and later …”.

For example, Unilever, which owns brands such as Knorr and Langneys, has been endorsing the “Often Well After…” label since 2019.

However, the shelf life remains valid for fresh foods such as meat, fish and other perishable goods. Such a law on food products is being prepared due to the results of research conducted by the Johann Heinrich von Thunen Institute (TI) by order of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture.

The results showed that 52 percent of the food—which accounts for waste—is produced in private households. In Germany alone, about 12 million tons of food is thrown away every year. The second part of the story involves large corporations that can no longer sell their products after their expiration date (“Best to use by…”).

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