Morrisons is to become the first supermarket to scrap use by dates on its own brand milk, instead encouraging customers to use a “sniff test” to judge if a product has gone off.
In a move the retailer claimed would save millions of pints of milk from being thrown away, 90% of milk sold by the retailer will see the change.
The latest research from Wrap estimates 85 million pints of milk waste may be a result of customers sticking to use by or ‘once opened use within’ guidance.
From the end of January, use by dates will be scrapped from Morrisons own brand British and Scottish milks, Morrisons For Farmers milks and Morrisons organic milks supplied by Arla farmers. Morrisons South West milk and The Best Jersey milk are yet to be converted.
The milk packaging will show best before dates to indicate to customers when they should drink it by – to get the best taste.
Wrap said milk was the third most wasted food and drink product in the UK, after potatoes and bread, with around 490 million pints wasted every year. Milk also has the largest carbon footprint of these food and drink products because its production is so resource-intensive.
Morrisons scrapped use by dates across some of its own-brand yoghurt and hard cheese ranges in 2020 as part of its plans to reduce food waste in stores by 50% by 2030.
“Wasted milk means wasted effort by our farmers and unnecessary carbon being released into the atmosphere,” said Ian Goode, senior milk buyer at Morrisons. “Good quality well-kept milk has a good few days life after normal ‘use by’ dates – and we think it should be consumed, not tipped down the sink. So we’re taking a bold step today and asking customers to decide whether their milk is still good to drink. Generations before us have always used the sniff test – and I believe we can too.”
Wrap CEO Marcus Gover added: “I am delighted that Morrisons is the first UK supermarket to take this important step to help reduce household food waste – it shows real leadership and we look forward to more retailers reviewing date labels on their products and taking action.
Wrap’s best practice, established jointly with the FSA and Defra, is to only apply a use by date when required for food safety reasons. Applying a best before date to indicate quality on all other products means people have longer to use their food. Almost 300,000 tonnes of milk is wasted from UK homes each year, worth £270m, with the main reason being that it isn’t used in time.
“Making improvements to labelling forms an important part of Wrap’s efforts under the Courtauld Commitment 2030 to reduce household food waste. It is fantastic to see Morrisons, as a Courtauld signatory, making this change – giving people the confidence to use their judgment and consume more of the milk they buy,” added Gover.
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