UK retailer Lidl has revealed that it is scrapping ‘Use By’ dates in favour of ‘Best Before’ dates on all of its own brand milk and yoghurt as part of its plan to reduce food waste.

The change will be implemented on milk packaging in December 2023, while yoghurt packaging will change in early 2024.

Lidl said that it will help prevent entirely edible food being thrown away, encouraging shoppers to use their judgement on whether products are still good to eat.

The supermarket stated that milk and yoghurt that has been stored correctly and doesn’t smell bad or appear lumpy is safe to enjoy, so it is therefore encouraging customers to use their judgement on whether to consumer the product.

Richard Inglis, head of buying at Lidl GB, said: “At Lidl, we know that a lot of perfectly good milk and yoghurt is being thrown away because of ‘Use By’ dates. 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.”