WI Calling For Less Once-Opened Food Confusion

How often do you look in your fridge to find something that was opened a few days ago?

Most of us end up with leftovers or half-used packages of food throughout the course of the week, especially as we’re always convinced we’ll do something with what’s left. The chances are, though, that things are more likely to end up in the bin because you can’t work out whether it’s still okay to eat.

Even though supermarkets and brands put advice on how long you should keep something after opening it, there seems to be a bit of confusion as to what these ‘once-opened’ dates actually mean. In fact, it looks like they might be contributing to the large amount of food waste still being created around the UK.

The Women’s Institute (WI) is now asking supermarkets to make it clearer what these once-opened dates mean, in a bid to help households stop throwing out so much food. It surveyed its members to see whether people understood all of the dates featured on food products and it seems that people are still struggling to get to grips with what they all mean.

The organisation also looked at the once-opened dates on food, finding that some supermarkets give conflicting advice on very similar products, which can be incredibly confusing. This could mean that the dates don’t give an accurate idea of how long food is safe to eat after being opened, which means we’re more likely to put it in the bin.

According to the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), putting dates and advice on food that means they can be eaten for just an extra day could help reduce food waste by a whopping 250,000 tonnes every year!

As well as finding that it isn’t clear whether once-opened dates address food quality or safety, the WI also revealed that a lot of people still struggle with the difference between best before and use by dates.

The WI surveyed 5,000 of its members, finding that less than half (45 per cent) knew that best before dates are all about food quality. A quarter (26 per cent) didn’t understand that use-by dates relate to food safety and are important to pay attention to.

When it comes to the dates on your food, it’s important to remember that the best before date tells you when the food will likely start to decline in quality, however, it is still safe to eat after this. The use-by date is the one that tells you when it is still safe to eat the food, as consuming after this date can lead to illness.

You can extend the life of food by freezing it before its use-by date runs out, which means you don’t need to throw it away. You can also freeze food that has been opened – so long as you do so on the day it is opened – if you know you aren’t going to get around to finishing it. You can find out more about the best ways to freeze food in our blog.