Secret code on fruit & veg will tell you how fresh they are – as ‘best before' dates stripped from 1,000s of products

The Sun

24-07-2025

Every year, Brits throw away 10.7million tonnes of food
CRACK THE CODE Secret code on fruit & veg will tell you how fresh they are – as 'best before' dates stripped from 1,000s of products
SUPERMARKETS have begun to strip 'best before' dates from many pre-packaged greens to help fight food waste.
In the UK, the average household throws out nine pieces of fruit every week, which adds up to £468 in the bin every year.
3
Supermarkets have started to ditch best before dates on their fruits and veggies
Credit: Alamy
The best way to tell if your fruits and veggies are off is to go by what they look like, taste like, or smell like.
But, if you've been left a little flustered by the change to packaging, experts have revealed a secret code to help you decipher how fresh your groceries are.
It also means you can buy food with the longest life to make sure it makes it to your plate, rather than a bin.
According to consumer site Which?, different supermarkets use their own secret codes to show when your food is still at its best – but you need to know what to look for.
At Asda and Tesco, the key is a letter followed by a number.
Each letter stands for a month – A for January, B for February, all the way to L for December.
The number is the day of the month. So H22? That's August 22.
Sainsbury's shoppers face a different puzzle.
Their code starts with J, ends with S – a nod to founder John Sainsbury – with the date tucked in between.
So J0904S means your item is good until April 9.
Morrisons keeps things simple. Just the first letter of the month and the date – like O12 for 12 October.
But watch out – June and July both start with 'J', which could cause a bit of a brain-fade in the fridge aisle.
Which? warns: 'Food is usually perfectly edible after its best-before or sell-by date – it should be fine to eat if it looks and smells OK.'
But with use-by dates, like on pre-cut fruit, it's a strict deadline: eat it by midnight, or risk getting ill.
The scale of food waste in the UK
A survey by Aldi of 2,000 Brits revealed the shocking truth: although a third of us want to eat more fruit and veg, over half admit they chuck too much of it away.
The worst fruit offender? Bananas – with the average home tossing 115 a year.
Tomatoes, mushrooms and even easy peelers aren't far behind.
Nearly a quarter of people admit they never finish a bag of salad before binning it, while 57 percent don't actually know how to store fresh food properly.
So next time you're in the fruit and veg aisle wondering whether those mushrooms are still good – check the code, not the label.
As well as saving yourself some cash, you'll be doing good for the planet too.
Every year, the UK throws away an eyewatering 10.7million tonnes of food - that's around 25 percent of all the food we buy.
Whilst businesses aren't saints by any means, households alone contribute to over half of the food wastage in our country.
It was revealed that 6.4million tonnes of food were thrown into kitchen bins in 2021 - and roughly 70 percent of that was perfectly edible.
3
Remember to check the codes on your veggie packaging
Credit: Which?