UK chain of stores: how we help our customers reduce food waste
[5 Agosto 2022]
Waitrose & Partners, which has 331 stores in England, Scotland, Wales and the Channel Islands and a fast-growing online shopping business, has announced that it will sell root vegetables, fruit such as grapes, citrus fruits, apples and houseplants.
In a note, the retail chain explains that “the removal of expiry dates aims to reduce the amount of food waste that occurs in UK households, while encouraging customers to use their own judgement”.
Marija Romapani, director of sustainability and ethics at the John Lewis Partnership, which owns and runs two of the UK’s best-known retail brands – John Lewis and Waitrose – stressed that “food waste remains a huge problem and not only in the UK In the U.S., 70% of all food wasted is caused by people’s homes. British households throw away 4.5 million tonnes of edible food each year, which means all the energy and resources used in food production are wasted. By eliminating expiration dates on our products, we want our customers to use their own judgment in deciding whether a product is good to eat, which in turn, will help ensure it’s eaten and not wasted. By using fresh food available in our homes, we can also save money on our weekly food purchases for the household, which is becoming a concern for many. By 2030, our customers Based on our ongoing commitment to helping reduce your food waste. WRAP (up in partnership with the Smart Resource Action Program, a government initiative), Ed) in bringing this initiative to life, we are delighted to help our customers play their part in addressing this global issue.”
In the UK as well as the EU, best-before dates are designed more to show the quality of the food than to protect the buyer. Even food not consumed by the recommended date is still good to eat and the removal of expiry dates on certain products invites customers to check the quality of the food before consuming it.
Waitrose & Partners explains that «for safety reasons the expiry dates for all other products will still be in effect. Eating food after its expiration date (unless it was frozen or past its expiration date) can cause food poisoning.
Katherine David, director of collaboration and change at WRAP, concluded: “Food waste fuels climate change and costs people money. “Best before…” labels for fruit and vegetables are unnecessary and waste food. produce because they get in the way of people using their judgment when the food is still good to eat. We are absolutely delighted with this move by Waitrose which is helping to stop good food going into the bin We estimate that removing expiration dates on fresh fruits and vegetables could save the equivalent of 7 million bags of food from your cart, which is a huge amount! We’re doing much more to combat food waste. Can: For fresh produce it is also very important to store them in the fridge and keep the temperature below 5°C. WRAP has found that apples last more than two months if they are refrigerated and broccoli two week long».
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