New labelling currently being rolled out across Sainsbury’s stores around the country will advise customers to freeze food as soon as possible up to the product’s use by date.  WRAP research shows that 60% of us believe that food has to be frozen on the day of purchase, which is reinforced by current labeling.  Changing this advice will help stop over-cautious shoppers from throwing away up to 600,000 tonnes of perfectly good food each year.

Andrew Parry, Consumer Food Waste Prevention Manager, WRAP, said: “Changing the guidance to freeze before the use by date is a welcome move.  Now we can all look in our fridges and know that we can freeze most items which are about to go out of date and enjoy them at a later time.  In doing so we can expect to reduce the amount of out of date food we throw away, which will in turn save us all money.”

Beth Hart, Sainsbury’s head of product technology for fresh and frozen, said: “The ‘freeze on day of purchase’ advice needs to be changed as there is no food safety reason why it cannot be frozen at any point prior to the use by date.  As a large UK retailer, we have a responsibility to minimize food waste where possible and this new labeling will certainly help us do that.”