Sainsbury’s joins other retailers in ditching use-by dates across its own-brand milk range

UK – British supermarket chain Sainsbury’s is replacing use-by dates with best-before dates across its own-brand milk range to reduce food waste.

The new labeling will roll out in the new year, and the change will be complete by the end of February 2024.

The move will affect 44 products in total, including all fresh and organic milk sold across England, Scotland, and Wales, and will apply to over 730 million pints of milk sold by Sainsbury’s every year.

Best-before dates indicate food quality, unlike use-by dates, which concern food safety. Sainsbury’s will encourage customers to use sensory cues, such as smell, to assess milk freshness.

Research from WRAP has shown that milk is the third most wasted food in the UK, with over 490 million pints thrown away each year, often because the milk has passed its use-by date.

Sainsbury’s switch to best-before dates aims to prevent customers from pouring away pints that are still safe to consume, giving them more time to use up their milk at home.

The new labeling will start to roll out in the new year, with the change set to be complete by the end of February 2024.

According to the Food Standards Agency (FSA), use-by dates are linked to food safety, whereas best-before dates relate to food quality.

Food with a use-by date applied should never be consumed past this date (unless frozen on or before that date), whereas foods with a best-before date can be eaten beyond that date.

Sainsbury’s will be encouraging its customers to follow the FSA’s guidance which recommends using sensory cues to see if milk with a best-before-date label has gone bad, for example, by sniffing the product.

Ruth Cranston, Director of Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability at Sainsbury’s, said: “Combatting food waste is one of our top priorities and we are continuously innovating to tackle this issue, all the way from farms and suppliers, right to our customers’ homes.

“By switching to best-before dates on our milk we are empowering customers to make their own decisions on whether their food is good to eat, helping to prevent them from disposing of food too early.”

Catherine David, Director of Behaviour Change & Business Programmes at WRAP, added: “We are delighted to see this change from Sainsbury’s, which will help reduce food waste in our homes.

“Wasting food feeds climate change and costs money – with the average family spending over £730 a year on good food which ends up in the bin. Our research shows applying the appropriate date label to products can help reduce the amount of good food that is thrown away.”

The supermarket’s decision to drop use-by labels from across its milk range follows recent moves by the Big 4 grocer to remove best-before dates from 1,500 products including pineapples, pumpkins and apples.

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