Co-op: Sustainability

‘Best-before’ scrapped in favour of ‘use by’ on yoghurts

The convenience retailer’s new guidance aims to encourage shoppers to check the quality of the product and use visual cues to establish its suitability to consume.

Co-op is to scrap use-by dates from all its own-brand yoghurts in a bid to reduce food waste and combat the 42,000 tonnes of edible yoghurt that is thrown out by UK homes each year due to guidance printed on-pack.

The industry-first move will see Co-op replace on-pack ‘use by’ guidance with ‘best before’ dates on its entire range of own-brand yoghurts. Co-op’s new guidance aims to encourage shoppers to check the quality of the product and use visual cues to establish its suitability to consume.

Research from WRAP has shown that 50% of yoghurts are thrown away in unopened packs and 70% of the all the yoghurt wasted in the home was due to yoghurts ‘not being used in time’, with the date label cited as the reason.

Nick Cornwell, Head of Food Technical at Co-op, said: “Yoghurt can be safe to eat if stored unopened in a fridge after the date mark shown, so we have made the move to best before dates to help reduce food waste. The acidity of yoghurt acts as a natural defence and we’d encourage shoppers to use their judgement on the quality of their yoghurt if it is past the best before date.”

Cornwell added: “We encourage more retailers and brands to review their on-pack guidance and make the switch to best before dates for yoghurts.”

Catherine David, Director of Collaboration and Change WRAP, said: “Wasting food feeds climate change and costs money. Applying a best before date helps give people the confidence to use their judgement to eat beyond a best before date and use more of the yoghurt they buy – protecting the planet and their pockets.”

Co-op will introduce best beforedates to its own-brand yoghurtsfrom May and will have the full rangeamended by October 2022.