Many supermarkets are coming away from listing their products' 'best before' dates on their food, in an effort to help minimise food waste. While lots of people throw items in their fridges and cupboards away on or just after their best before dates, as they fear the items have gone-off or are no longer good to eat, the 'best before' dates are just that - the final date the item is at its highest-quality.
Best before dates differ from 'use by' dates, which specify the last day an item should be eaten for safe consumption - but certainly removing best before dates from products, especially fruit and vegetables, has upset customers who worry they're no longer able to buy products that have a good shelf-life, as they can't pick and choose the products with the longest dates.
Recently, many shoppers have noticed a new code appearing on various packaging for fruit and vegetables in the place the best before date used to be listed - but no-one seemed to know what the code meant. Until now.
