M&S bins ‘use-by’ dates on milk – in favour of the sniff test! Chain hopes move will stop millions of safe pints being needlessly poured away

• M&S milk will have ‘best before’ dates, with Brits told to use their judgement
• Around 490million pints are poured down the drain in the UK every year

M&S has removed use-by dates from its milk and will now encourage customers to use a sniff test to judge whether it is in date.

The move is a bid to cut food waste, with the retailer warning that around 490million pints, worth £270million, are poured down the drain in the UK every year.

That equates to 18 and a half pints per household, usually because its use by date has expired.

Milk sold at all M&S stores in the UK will instead be adorned with ‘best before’ dates from this week, with Brits told to use their judgement before throwing away milk that may be perfectly fine to consume. 

While use by dates apply to food safety — meaning consuming it at a later date could cause illness — best before is about quality. Food consumed after this date may not be at its best but won’t make consumers unwell.

M&S has removed use-by dates from its milk and will now encourage customers to use a sniff test to judge whether it is in date

Best before, rather than use-by dates, already appear on a wide range of products including frozen, dried and tinned food.

The Food Standards Agency encourages people to use ‘sensory cues’ to determine if food with a best before date is fine to eat.

It recommends sniffing dairy products, looking for visible mould on bread and tasting biscuits or crisps to check if they are stale.

However, this doesn’t apply to items with a use-by date, as even if it looks and smells fine, it can contain bugs that cause food poisoning. 

M&S said the move is in line with its commitment to tackle food waste, with milk being the third most wasted food in the home, behind only potatoes and bread.

Improvements to shelf life and the overall quality of milk in recent years has enabled the switch, it added. 

It comes after the supermarket removed best before dates from more than 300 fruit and vegetables last year. 

Catherine David, director collaboration and change at sustainability charity, WRAP said: ‘By changing its British and organic fresh milk to a Best-Before date, M&S is instantly helping its customers save money and cut waste by giving them more time to consume the milk they buy. 

‘WRAP’s joint Best Practice with the Food Standards Agency, Defra and Dairy UK states to only apply a Use-By date when required for food safety reasons, and it’s fantastic to see M&S – a Courtauld 2030 signatory – making this switch. 

‘This type of change to labelling is fundamental in helping people reduce household food waste, which currently tops more than 6.6million tonnes each year across the UK.’

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