Tesco removes best-before dates to cut food waste

The supermarket says customers may find it confusing having both a best-before and use-by date on the same product and so it will only use the latter.

It began removing the best-before dates last week from items such as apples, potatoes, tomatoes, lemons and onions, and confirmed if the scheme works well it could be rolled out to include other Tesco products.

Tesco head of food waste Mark Little said: "We know some customers may be confused by the difference between 'best-before' and 'use-by' dates on food and this can lead to perfectly edible items being thrown away before they need to be discarded.

"We have made this change to fruit and vegetable packaging as they are among the most wasted foods.

"Many customers have told us that they assess their fruit and vegetables by the look of the product rather than the 'best-before' date code on the packaging."

See our for info on what to check before you chuck.