020 7001 60007th November 2011:
Many of us assume that foods past their 'sell-by' date must be unsafe. In fact, virtually all of it is perfectly good, but the implication that it is 'off' has contributed significantly to the five million tonnes of edible produce (worth an estimated £12 billion) that is binned each year by households in the UK. Much of that goes to landfill, which is expensive and eventually forms the powerful climate-change gas methane. But, since 15th September, sell-by dates have begun to be phased out.
Most foods (e.g., tinned and dry goods, jams, pickles and snacks) should carry a 'best-before' date, after which they will no longer be at their best but are still safe to eat. 'Use-by' labels will only go on food that is unsafe after a certain date, e.g., soft cheese, meat, fish, eggs and ready meals.
Bywaters is an advocate of the: 'reduce, reuse, recycle' principles of the Waste Hierarchy and provides a separate food waste collection for unsalvageable food. The gradual phasing out of sell-by dates and use of the unique Bywaters' Bio-Cycler containers both work towards reducing the amount of food waste sent to landfill.
Our collections allow you to recycle your cooked and raw food scraps which will then be taken to local facilities to be composted or anaerobically digested. This compost is then used in agriculture, landscaping and horticulture.
- Food waste facts
- 10% of rich countries' greenhouse gas emissions come from growing food that is never eaten
- UK households waste 25% of all the food they buy
- An estimated 20-40% of UK fruit and vegetables are rejected even before they reach the shops mostly because they do not match the supermarkets' excessively (?) strict cosmetic standards
- The bread and other cereal products thrown away from UK households alone would have been enough to lift 30 million of the world's hungry people out of malnourishment
- 4 million people in the UK, 43 million in the EU and around 35 million in the US suffer from food poverty
- An estimated 20 million tonnes of food is wasted every year in Britain 'from the plough to the plate'
- All Food Waste Facts are from Tristram Stuart's Waste: Uncovering Global Food Scandal (Penguin, 2009)
Contact a member of our team for further information.
