Asda is removing Use By dates on over half of its own-brand yoghurts in a bid to help customers combat food waste in the home.
Over the next few weeks, labels on products such as the Big 4 grocer’s natural yoghurt, Greek Yoghurt and Extra Special Strawberry and Hazelnut will see Use By Dates replaced with Best Before dates.
Following robust food safety and quality evaluations by Asda’s technical manager, microbioligist and product manager, it has been confirmed that existing recipes of 28 lines which sell around 455,000 a week are safe to be changed to ‘Best Before’ labelling.
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This comes as data from climate action NGO, Wrap found that half of all yoghurt wasted in UK households is in unopened packs.
It also found that 70% of all the yoghurt wasted in the home is because of the product ‘not being used in time’, with the date label cited as the reason.
“We are always looking at ways we can help customers reduce food waste in the home, and with research from Wrap saying 54,000 tonnes of edible yoghurt is thrown away unnecessarily each year we are hopeful this change will both make a big difference to the environment and save customers money at the same time,” Asda fresh and frozen foods vice president, Paul Gillow said.
Wrap director of collaboration and change, Catherine David added: “WRAP is thrilled to see our partner Asda make these changes on yoghurts – which will help reduce food waste in our homes.
“Wasting food feeds climate change and costs us money – with the average family spending £700 year on good food which ends up in the bin. Our research shows applying the appropriate date label to products like yoghurts can help reduce the amount of good food that is thrown in the bin.”
