According to Business Waste, the UK produces around 9.5 million tonnes of food waste in a single year. Most staggering of all, the waste management company reveals that one-third of all food ends up thrown away.
A huge proportion of this is down to the lack of awareness of expiration dates. Oddbox reports that as many as “one-third of Brits rely only on best-before labels when deciding whether their food has gone bad” – placing a huge amount of importance on this information without understanding what these labels actually mean.
Expiration dates have been around since the 1970s and were said to have been created by Marks & Spencer to encourage sales of its dwindling cake department as well as provide an indicator of quality. This often-dubbed “arbitrary” information quickly gained speed as our collective awareness and paranoia of health and safety increased.
Contrary to what we may believe, the term ‘best before’ does not refer to the safety of the food but its predicted quality. Many of us look at it as a rule rather than the guideline that it is. It is not a testament to the edibility of the food inside.
Approved Food was created to change our reliance on expiration dates and encourage us to reconsider the lifespan of food that is too good to waste. There have already been over 1.25 million orders delivered across the UK.
What is Approved Food?
To reduce the number of household staples that end up being thrown away, Approved Food stocks surplus and short-dated stock with over 2,000 products across pantry and cleaning essentials – and crucially, with huge savings. The brand offers cans, snacks, baking goods and more that have either passed their ‘best before’ but are still very much safe to eat or have been discontinued due to damaged or updated packaging.
In this cost-of-living crisis, Approved Food has emerged to provide a cost-saving alternative to the ever-increasing price of a supermarket shop with prices as low as 1p – and it’s good for the planet too. Win-win.
How does it work?
In much the same way as you would order your weekly shop online from Tesco, Ocado and the like, Approved Food categorises its selection and you simply add to basket in the quantity of your choosing. The website is fairly simple in design – it’s not the most aesthetically pleasing but it does the job.
You can filter the offering too, showing only in-date products, by brand and how recently it was added. There are savings of up to 90 per cent as well as bundle deals.
As you may expect, you won’t find fresh ingredients. There are no fruits, vegetables, meat or fish. Instead, the stock is overwhelmingly beige with a huge quantity of crisps, snack bars, instant noodles, nuts and canned goods on offer. Perfect for stocking up your pantry.
Delivery is around £3 to £9 depending on the weight of your groceries but there is free delivery when you spend over £55 – a surprisingly difficult feat.
The brand assures that nothing is past the use-by date.
What brands can you buy?
The sheer breadth is hugely surprising. You can shop Bonne Maman, Mr Kipling, Kalo, Penguin, Lindt, Toblerone and Aptamil. I was thrilled to see Sour Patch Kids and my favourite Teapigs.
Verdict – is it worth it?
In short, yes.
As someone who has in the past paid close attention to expiration dates in the past, it was a mental challenge to throw everything I thought I knew out the window and consume food that I would ordinarily have put in the bin. Some items were easier than others.
I had no qualms about cracking open the crisps, cereal, peeled tomatoes and spices – in fact for the latter, there are likely already paprika and chilli flakes that I purchased 10+ years ago in my cupboard. Similarly, the household cleaning items – Dettol wipes, washing up liquid and washing capsules – were eagerly added to my under-sink collection without giving it a second thought.
However, there are some items that I just would not want to risk, namely baby food and dog and cat food. If I have to deal with the consequences, it’s just not going to happen.
I had optimistically added “healthy”, low-cal snacks from Slim Fast and Fibre One – which were equally as unappealing as if I’d purchased them from my local Tesco Express.
In my basket, there were 12 items ranging from Ariel Pods to Franks RedHot Original Sauce totalling £31.21. For the identical shop on Tesco’s website, it came to £37.64 - in the words of the latter, Every Little Helps. When compared with Ocado and M&S, the savings would be even greater. It’s certainly worth a try to stock your cupboards and save your precious pennies at the same time.
