The grocery giant will scrap the dates on packaged fruit and vegetables to encourage consumers to use their own judgment about when food has gone off. The move, to introduced next month, is expected to eliminate millions of baskets’ worth of food wasted by people throwing away products that are still edible, the retailer claimed.
Marija Rompani, director of sustainability and ethics at John Lewis Partnership, which owns Waitrose, said: “By using up existing fresh food, we can also save on our weekly household food shop, which is becoming an increasingly pressing concern for many.”
Earlier this month, Marks & Spencer axed “best-before” dates from more than 300 fruit and vegetable products after a trial.
Tesco led the way for the supermarkets when it got rid of the dates on more than 100 fresh food products in 2018.