Aldi removing ‘use-by’ dates on milk bottles and telling shoppers to use ‘sniff test’

Milk is often perfectly fine to drink even after the date on the bottle

Shoppers will instead be encouraged to judge whether milk is off or not using a good old-fashioned 'sniff test.'

It comes after waste reduction charity WRAP revealed that almost 300,000 tonnes of milk is wasted by UK households each year. Roughly half of those asked said the reason they pour milk away is because they've not finished it by the 'use-by' date on the bottle.

So, Aldi has taken the decision to put 'best before' dates on its milk bottles across hundreds of its UK stores, as part of efforts to reduce the amount of milk being needlessly poured away.

Shoppers will be encouraged to "perform a sniff test" on the milk to decided whether it is still good to drink or not, instead of just going by the date on the bottle.

This is because milk can often be perfectly fine and safe to drink even when it's past the date on the bottle, as long as it's been stored properly and doesn't smell off.

Liz Fox, Sustainability Director at Aldi UK, said the budget supermarket chain is always working to find ways to become more sustainable.

“We are constantly working to be a more sustainable retailer and we are dedicated to preventing food waste wherever we can, both in our stores and helping customers throw away less food at home,” she said.

“We hope shoppers embrace this change and look, smell, and taste their milk to see if it’s still fine to use, so together we can reduce the effect food waste has on the environment.”

Aldi are the latest supermarket to remove use-by dates from milk, after Morrisons enforced the same policy last year,

In January 2022, Morrisons announced it was scrapping use-by dates on milk after their research showed milk does not need to be labelled as perishable food.

The supermarket chain said it believed the move could save seven million pints of milk from being poured away each year.

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