The ‘Look, Smell, Taste, Don’t Waste’ campaign was launched to educate consumers to use their senses instead of purely following Best Before labels. It also encourages food brands to move from Use By to Best Before labels where safe to do so, all in a bid to reduce unnecessary food waste.
Now, one year on, Too Good To Go is celebrating having over 40 food and drink brands signed up to the initiative.
Jamie Crummie, co-founder of Too Good To Go, said: “We’ve seen an incredible appetite over the last year from food businesses joining our initiative and helping us to reduce the amount of perfectly good food that is wasted every day simply because of date label confusion. However, what is clear is that this is certainly not a job done. There is still a huge amount of consumer education to be done, and there are tonnes more brands who we’d love to join our campaign in order to make even greater strides in reducing household food waste. I’m calling on other brands who haven’t yet taken the steps to join the campaign to get in touch – we’d love to have you join our food waste movement.”
Latest survey data compiled by Too Good To Go found that while 64% of British adults correctly understand that Best Before dates mean that the food will not be at its best quality after the date shown, only half (52%) of them believe that food past it’s Best Before date is perfectly safe to eat. This drops to 44% of 18-24 year olds. In fact, the average consumer is throwing away £303 worth of food a year on average due to it being past its Best Before date.
Amongst the over 40 brands taking part, Arla (Cravendale), Bel Group (The Laughing Cow, GoGo squeeZ ), Danone (Actimel, Activia, Oykos, Light & Free), Emmi UK (Onken & Beleaf), Nestlé (Cookie Crisp, Nesquik, Golden Nuggets, Shredded Wheat, Cheerios, Shreddies, Frosted Shreddies), PepsiCo (Tropicana, Copella), Savencia (Saint Agur) and Yeo Valley Organic have all signed up to join the ‘Look, Smell, Taste, Don’t Waste’ campaign. Some Best Before product lines from these brands now include the initiative’s pictogram, created by Too Good To Go, to remind consumers to trust their senses instead of just relying on ‘Best Before’ date labels.
Sébastien Garnet, Quality & Food Safety Director at Danone UK & Ireland, said: “It’s a huge shame that so much good food goes to waste while some people around the country struggle to access healthy foods. With Danone’s mission to bring health through food to as many people as possible, we’re proud to help consumers understand when food is still safe to eat by supporting Too Good To Go’s ‘Look, Smell, Taste, Don’t Waste’ campaign. Our yogurt brands are moving away from featuring ‘use by’ dates because, if they still taste and smell good, consumers can be confident that they can enjoy them in the knowledge that they are perfectly safe to eat.”
Stefano Agostini, Nestlé UK&I CEO, added: “We’ve been delighted to support Too Good To Go’s ‘Look, Smell, Taste, Don’t Waste’ campaign this past year. We’ve been rolling out the new labelling across our key products which are produced in the UK and Ireland to build on the work we’ve been doing to reduce food waste across our operations.
“Our Nestlé Cereals now have the ‘Look, Smell, Taste, Don’t Waste’ messaging on the boxes to make it clear that not all food that’s gone past its Best Before date should be headed for the bin.”
This article first appeared on Kam City Nam News
