Asda has made a major change to its yoghurt packaging in a bid to both save shoppers money and combat food waste.
In a bid to encourage customers to use their own judgement when food is off, the supermarket giant has confirmed that it will be removing the 'use by' dates on a number of its own-label products.
In the coming weeks shoppers will notice that 'use by' dates will be replaced with 'best before' on a range of products including ASDA's own natural yoghurt, Greek Yoghurt and Extra Special Strawberry and Hazelnut.
READ MORE: Asda jobs cuts as over 2,000 roles at risk and 4,000 face pay cut
The food retailer sells roughly 455,000 yoghurt products a week from its 28 lines, ASDA confirmed. Therefore, the change is expected to make a sizeable impact.
The move comes after data from climate action group NGO WRAP revealed that a massive 50% of all yoghurt wasted from UK households come from unopened cartons.
An additional 70% of yoghurt waste comes from households not 'eating the product in time', concluding that the label itself is responsible for the amount of waste.
ASDA's major change comes after its Technical Manager, Microbiologist and Product Manager conducted "robust" food safety and quality evaluations to ensure its existing recipes would be safe after the change.
Paul Gillow, Vice President of Fresh & Frozen Foods at ASDA, said: "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."
Catherine David, Director of Collaboration & Change, WRAP, said: "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."
And it's not the first time that ASDA has changed its food labels in hopes to help combat food waste, as it also joined a host of other supermarkets by scrapping best before dates across its fresh product range.
The move saw the grocery giant remove the dates on almost 250 of its fresh fruit and vegetables products late last year including citrus fruits, potatoes, cauliflowers and carrots.
Read more:
