Asda is the latest UK retailer to remove ‘best before’ labels across a range of fresh produce, including 200 fruit and vegetable products.

Carrots, cauliflowers and potatoes will be amongst the products affected by the change. The labels will be replaced by a code that staff can use to check the product’s freshness.

Asda’s plans are similar to that announced by Marks and Spencer (M&S) in June of this year. As part of plans to ditch ‘best before’ dates on a range of fruit and vegetable products across its UK stores, more than 300 M&S items have had labels replaced by a code.

According to guidelines by the Food Standards Agency (FSA), the ‘best before’ date, sometimes shown as BBE (best before end), is about quality. The food will be safe to eat after this date but may not be at its best. On the other hand, the ‘use-by’ date on food is about safety. The FSA said that consumers can eat food until and on the use-by date but not after.

From September, Waitrose will remove best before dates on nearly 500 fresh products including root vegetables, fruits such as grapes, citrus, apples as well as indoor plants. Waitrose said that the move is part of the company’s commitment to help its customers reduce food waste at home by 2030.

Earlier this year, Morrisons replaced ‘use by’ labels on 90% of its own-brand milk with ‘best before’ labels. The company also encouraged customers to use the sniff test to check the quality of its milk products. Similarly, Co-op revealed plans to swap use-by dates with best-before labels on its range of own-brand yoghurts in order to cut food waste.

In 2018, Tesco scrapped best before dates on 190 products including apples, oranges, cabbages and asparagus.