Consumer confusion is perhaps the worst enemy of efforts to reduce waste. So it was a good move when, in the middle of last month, Defra revealed it would start recommending the end of display-until and sell-by dates on packs in supermarkets. Scrapping sell-by dates is seen by many as a crucial weapon in the battle to cut the mountain of food waste generated by the UK and the developed world more generally. The argument goes that consumers chuck out food that is past its sell-by date because they think it's no longer safe to eat, even though it is. It would be much easier to understand a single date beyond which food cannot be consumed; so bad food is indeed thrown away, but good food is not. Broadly, I think this is right. Granted, dropping the dates is not a silver bullet for the food waste issue, and the supermarkets have complained that the dates are a key mechanism in their internal stock control systems. But the move shows that the government is serious about tackling food waste, and this must be welcomed.
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