Freeze ASAP: Sainsbury's amends pack advice
Sainsbury’s is ditching the ‘freeze on day of purchase’ advice on its packaging in a bid to stop over-cautious shoppers from throwing away up to 800,000 tonnes of food a year.
The retailer is rolling out the new advice - ‘freeze as soon as possible after purchase and always within the use-by date’ - following research from Wrap that found 60% of consumers thought food had to be frozen on the day they purchased it.
“The ‘freeze on day of purchase’ advice needs to be changed as there is no food safety reason why it cannot be frozen at any point prior to the use-by date,” said Sainsbury’s head of product technology for fresh and frozen Beth Hart.
“As one customer pointed out to me while discussing the previous labelling, ‘how does the product know which day I purchased it on?’”
Wrap’s research also found most freezers were only three-quarters full, suggesting shoppers could make better use of their freezers to avoid wasting fresh food.
Readers' comments (1)
Andrew Cooper | 10 Feb 2012 15:47
Freezing after the day of purchase shouldn’t pose a food safety risk as long as food has been stored in accordance with any instructions provided. The most important thing is to freeze food before its use by date as that is the only date that relates to food safety. The Food Standards Agency’s advice continues to be to follow the use by date and treat all other dates more flexibly. Any initiatives such as this, to help reduce food waste, should be welcomed as long as food safety isn’t compromised.
For advice on how to store food safely, visit:
http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/homehygiene/Pages/how-to-store-food-safely.aspx
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