Did you know that Tuesday, the 1^st of March is National Stop Food Waste Awareness Day?

In the most recent National Food Waste Attitudes Survey that was carried out by the EPA’s Stop Food Waste Team, we learned the biggest reason why people throw food away is because it has passed its use-by date. If we all take small, simple actions to use or freeze food before it passes its use-by date, we can take big steps to reduce our food waste.

So what’s the difference between Use-By & Best Before Dates?

A great rule of thumb from SafeFood is that Use By is a deadline and Best Before is a Guideline. In other words, food that has passed its Use By date may not be safe to eat.

Use-By dates appear on fresh, ready-to-eat and chilled foods that go off, such as fish and meat, dairy products, and unpasteurised fruit juices. After the use-by deadline, bacteria can start to build up in the food, and may not be safe to eat. Food should not be eaten after this date unless it has been frozen. Freezing acts like a pause button so you can eat the food at another time.

Five Ways to Make Use-By Dates Work for You:

1. Check use-by dates on food labels – Over 75% of people in our recent survey said that they ‘always or regularly check dates on food labels while shopping’. By doing this, you can check if food will last until you plan to use it.
2. Store perishable food properly – Make sure food is stored properly, e.g. cooked meats should be stored in a fridge at 5° Celsius or less. See our A-Z of Foods for storage information and advice on freezing safely.
3. Keep track of use-by dates in your fridge – When you look in the fridge, the first thing you need to see are the food items you should eat first – those with shorter use-by deadlines! Place food with longer use-by deadlines behind ‘older’ ones to wait their turn to be eaten.
4. Eat food before its use-by deadline is up – You can eat food right up to the end of its use-by date but not after. So, when the countdown is on, take action:
   • Eat it!
   • Share it with family or friends!
   • Try an ‘Eat Me’ share-shelf in your fridge!
5. Freeze food right up to its use-by date – If you don’t think you’ll be able to use food within its use-by time, don’t worry! You can safely freeze food right up to the use-by date. Allowing you to eat the food at another time and save you money! Just remember if you froze it on the use-by date, it should be defrosted in the fridge and consumed within 24 hours of defrosting.

How do you make use-by dates work for you?

If you are taking actions to reduce food waste in your family home or house share – then tag #StopFoodWasteDay and #KnowYourUseBys on your social media to let us know.

This article is adapted from a post from Stop Food Waste at the EPA (March 1st 2022).

Image with thanks to Stop Food Waste at the EPA.