Lidl has ditched ‘use by’ dates on its own brand milk and yoghurt ranges as it aims to help customers reduce food waste at home.
The discounter is the latest retailer to make the move with both Sainsbury’s and Aldi scrapping ‘use by’ dates on milk in recent months in favour of letting customers use their judgement.
Lidl’s updated milk packaging has already started to filter into its England and Wales stores, while the change will be made to yoghurt labels from early 2024.
The discounter’s head of buying Richard Inglis said: “At Lidl, we know that a lot of perfectly good milk and yoghurt is being thrown away because of ‘use by’ dates.
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“It therefore makes total sense to us to make the switch to ‘best before’ so that shoppers can use their own judgement on whether their milk or yoghurt is good to consume.
“We’ve got a long record of making positive change to reduce food waste, and this latest step builds on our commitment to helping households tackle food waste at home.”
The move bolster’s Lidl’s action to tackle food waste. It has also created its ‘Too Good to Waste’ boxes, which for £1.50, provide approximately 5kg of fruit and vegetables that are slightly damaged, discoloured, or deteriorated but are still good to eat.
The boxes help reduce food waste by 17,000 tonnes each year, according to the grocer.
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