No more Best Before: UK WRAP reports progress on fresh food waste, calls for more effective labeling

06 Nov 2019 --- UK government-backed circular economy and resource efficiency charity WRAP has issued new guidance encouraging retailers to sell more fresh produce loose and without Best Before dates. These changes could help reduce the UK’s annual food waste bill, including binned fruit and vegetables worth nearly £4 billion (US$5.1 billion), the organization says. WRAP recognizes progress by individual retailers in its latest Retail Survey but reiterates that more needs to be done in implementing best practice for packs and labeling to help cut household food waste.

WRAP’s retail survey examined to what extent the UK’s largest grocery retailers and major brands have made progress in implementing best-practice guidance on date labels, product life, pack size and storage/freezing advice.

The sustainability body visited nearly sixty supermarkets and examined 2,000 food products – representing those most frequently wasted in UK homes. The research found that a quarter of all pre-packed unprepared fresh produce now carries no date label, while the available shelf-life of other products, such as milk, has increased.

For the first time, each retailer has received a detailed assessment of its performance, including where improvements are required, which is summarized in the Retail Survey.

“The way food and drink is packaged, labeled and priced can influence household food waste, and retailers and brands are uniquely placed to help minimize food waste in the home,” says Peter Maddox, Director at WRAP.

“Our research shows that people want clear, consistent information on pack to help them keep food fresher for longer. Overall, we’ve seen good progress from all, but we have also been very clear with each company where more work is required, and where they are falling short.”

Retail Survey findings

More action required 

• Little evidence was found of retailers having implemented guidance to remove open life statements except where food safety is an issue. For example, for hard cheese, the average available life for block cheddar was 64 days, but 90 percent of packs carried advice to use within 5 or 7 days of opening. Nine retailers are now reviewing or amending open life on yogurts and cheese.
• Bagged salads typically have very conservative Open Life of just one day and more could potentially extend this. 
• More than 70 percent of fresh potatoes carry a Best Before label and the average available product life has decreased by around one day (to four days). More than 10 percent of 2.5kg bagged white potato, when surveyed, had less than two days available product life.
• There are some instances of good availability of smaller pack sizes, for example, for dairy and meat items. However, while small packs of bread (400g loaves) were found in two-thirds of stores, they were on average 74 percent more expensive per kg than 800g loaves. WRAP wants the phrase “Freeze on Day of Purchase” stopped. This can lead people to throw away good food, instead of freezing it up until the date mark. Three retailers have completely removed this and eight more are removing the remaining few products with this statement.
  
  

On track

• The amount of product life available to consumers has remained stable on many products. However, more than one-fifth of items found on shelf had just two days or fewer remaining life; including bread, minced beef and berries. For milk, an increase in 1.5 days of available shelf-life was noted, which is “excellent” as an extra day alone could help reduce household milk waste by more than 20,000 metric tons per year.
• A quarter of all pre-packed unprepared fresh produce now carries no date label, which aligns with the updated guidance. Three retailers have removed Best Before on some fresh produce, with another committing to remove them from selected produce. 
• Almost all products had correct home storage advice and WRAP’s Little Blue Fridge logo has increased in prominence. This indicates when foods, such as apples, stay fresher for longer when refrigerated at home. Eight retailers are committed to reviewing or amending storage temperature advice of “<5oC” to products. This is “excellent,” as it helps prompt people to check the temperature of their fridge and keeping fridges at the right temperature keeps food safe and fresher for longer. 
• There has been a significant increase in the use of the snowflake logo, rising from 15 percent to nearly 50 percent. The number of bread items now carrying the snowflake has doubled to 79 percent, which is beneficial as freezing is a key way to extend the life of bread items and reduce the likelihood of it being wasted.

Changes to fresh produce packaging and dates
WRAP has also updated its guidance on applying date labels and packaging choices for fresh produce, the most wasted food category in the home. 

The World Food Program reports that if food waste were a country, it would be the third biggest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Having a range of pack sizes and formats including loose can help to reduce food waste. Offering fresh produce loose allows customers to purchase the correct amount for their needs. Where fresh produce is packaged, the absence of a Best Before date – on some items – can also help to reduce waste by encouraging people to use their judgment. 

“Public concern has grown over plastic packaging since our last survey, particularly around fresh produce, and we have updated our guide to address single-use, problematic plastics in this category,” Maddox continues.

“Removal of packaging must be done carefully to avoid food waste, and we now have a clear set of principles that will help limit plastic use, and ensure removal is done in a safe and sustainable way.”

“The other significant development we recommend is removing Best Before dates from uncut fresh produce where this doesn’t risk increasing food waste, and the guidance helps this decision-making. We see this being particularly useful for commonly wasted items like potatoes,” Maddox adds.

WRAP has developed decision-making tools and guidance for retailers to encourage both actions and published a case study on a fresh produce trial undertaken at a Morrisons store in North Yorkshire. The trial involved increasing the number of fresh produce lines sold loose and found that people shopped more often, for smaller quantities of fresh produce, which could be particularly beneficial for high-waste produce such as potatoes. 

An evaluation of the trial found most people preferred buying fresh produce loose, because they could choose the size and condition, buy the exact quantity required and because it didn't have plastic packaging. A small group of customers preferred plastic packaging for convenience and hygiene reasons. Following the successful 10-month trial, Morrisons plans to roll out the initiative to 60 stores by the end of 2019. 

Research also shows that the presence of a date label, of any type, influences behavior and makes people more likely to discard food once the date has passed. Whilst there is no legal requirement for fresh, uncut fruit and vegetables to have a date label, using a Best Before date on some short-life products with limited time for consumption in the home can help to prevent fresh produce waste. However, WRAP recommends removing Best Before dates from fresh produce, where appropriate, and encouraging people to judge when to eat fresh produce.

Plastics: Vital to minimizing food waste?
Functional packaging specialist StePac recently announced its four-pillared strategy for greener packaging, prioritizing the use of plastics as a means to combat fresh produce food waste. As fresh food requires travel and processing from field-to-fork, abandoning plastic packaging would inevitably exacerbate the crisis, the supplier warns, as plastic is the medium most capable of keeping food fresher, longer and allows for wider food distribution.

StePac describes food waste as a “global epidemic,” with almost a third of all food and nearly half of all fresh produce wasted annually. Not only does this create an ethical crisis, with millions suffering food deprivation around the world, but it creates an environmental crisis – food waste contributes to about 8 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, the supplier reports.Widely considered to be an enemy to environmental sustainability, plastics packaging, such as StePac's Xflow solution pictured above, excels as a material in extending fresh produce shelf-life. 

Gary Ward, Business Development Manager for StePac, tells PackagingInsights that food waste is a multifaceted problem. Supermarkets rejecting approximately 25 percent of crops produced by farms, poor post-harvest handling practices, handling damage at stores and depots, poor supply chain management and household waste are all contributors to the problem.

StePac’s leading brand of Xtend MAP (modified atmosphere packaging) is an example of its “Climate Positive” solutions. Xtend MAP extends shelf-life and reduces waste in the fresh produce supply chain while saving more carbon emissions than it generates.

Brexit to exacerbate food waste problem?
UK packaging experts have warned that delays at customs in the event of a “no-deal Brexit” could lead to more food waste and intensify the need for shelf-life extending solutions.

According to Richard Coles, Director of Emagine Packaging, short shelf-life food such as fresh, chilled produce, chilled dairy products, juice/juice drinks and many other perishables, including fresh chilled fish and seafood, meat and poultry, would be the worst affected in the event of a “no-deal Brexit.”

“Delays will also be of concern to other sectors, particularly those delivering time-temperature sensitive products, such as pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines,” he tells PackagingInsights.

Responses could include more investment in automation, warehousing, transport and resource-efficient logistical packaging, for example, “right-size” laser-cut corrugated packaging for e-commerce. “Also expect an increase in the adoption of innovative packaging that helps reduce costs and extend shelf-life, for example, enhanced thermal insulation for chilled products and active and intelligent packaging solutions,” Coles explains.

By Joshua Poole