Is it safe to eat food after the best-before and use-by dates?

Retailers and new app making it easier to prevent waste and save money

Supermarket
(Image credit: Stephen Chernin/Getty Images)

Co-op’s East of England division is the latest UK retailer to sell food past its best-before date to reduce waste - and the trend is expanding globally.

A Danish charity, Wefood, opened Denmark’s first food surplus supermarket in 2016 in the capital, Copenhagen, selling produce at 30% to 50% less than standard supermarket prices. The idea took off in the UK that same year, when a retailer in Dover, Kent, set up Niftie’s to sell items that are either damaged or past their best-before dates, with most prices between 10p and 70p. France took action in 2016 as well, banning supermarkets from throwing away unsold food and requiring them instead to donate unwanted items to charities and food banks.

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