London, April 18 (IANS) Food items sold in Britain will no longer display ‘best before’ dates, as lawmakers believe such labelling encourages people to throw away edibles even though they are often safe to eat.
Over 13.7 billion pounds worth of food and drink is thrown away each year, with each household paying an average of 680 pounds for uneaten items, says the Daily Express.
Britons throw away over 10 million tonnes of waste each year, including five million potatoes a day, 4.4 million apples, a million loaves of bread and a million slices of ham.
Foods more prone to ‘going off’ or that can cause food poisoning, like fish, prawns and eggs, will have warning labels.
Supermarket promotions, saying ‘buy one get one free’ often led to over-buying, officials said.
Officials said they wanted ‘best before’ dates to be scrapped in favour of ‘use by’ dates, to make things less confusing.
‘Display until’ labels and ‘sell by’ dates may also be removed.
Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman is expected to announce the change next month.
