Supermarkets increasingly letting the consumer make own decisions

As the fresh food waste issue remains an issue of concern, retailers are tasking the consumer with the obvious

"Best-before" dates printed on fresh produce packs such as onions, tomatoes or apples are to be gradually scrapped by UK supermarkets and the decision of whether a fresh produce is fit to be consumed is to be left to the consumer. This surprisingly simple solution to reducing annual food waste totaling 4.5 million tons is being adopted by ever more retailers, the latest of whom is none other than Waitrose. In the UK 70% of all food waste is by households where all decision making defers to best-before dates traditionally printed on both fresh and processed food. Large retailers now want the consumers to use their own judgement when deciding when a fresh product is good to eat or not.

Things may well be changing, but overall progress in sustainable packaging and waste reduction remains exceedingly slow

That phasing out of best-before dates marks an interesting twist in a market where mandated labeling has increasingly replaced common sense and individual responsibility, and where one may argue that food packaging has become so tightly regulated that the consumer has lost the ability to make his or her own choices.

Solving one issue doesn't preclude ignoring another

Fruits and vegetables can be bought by unit in larger stores or are sold wrapped in plastic packaging (apparently, paper and cardboard packaging hasn't found its natural market in the fruits and vegetable aisles). The obvious question as to why (transparent) plastic hasn't been phased out yet surely stems from a need on the part of the retailer to let the consumer check the appearance of fresh produce, reduce waste along its supply chain and facilitate in-store quality checks by its staff. However if cardboard packaging has been used so widely for calibrated fresh eggs, why wouldn't a packaging solution for fruits and veg emerge and be commercially viable?

Keywords: fresh produce, fruits and vegetables, onions, tomatoes, apples, fresh food, processed food, food waste, retailers, food stores, food retail, supermarkets, Waitrose, labeling, food labeling, food packaging, paper packaging, cardboard packaging, fresh eggs