Morrisons, the renowned United Kingdom based supermarket chain, has reportedly decided to scrap use-by dates from milk packages in favor of a simple sniff test, by the end of January. The supermarket suggests that customers just sniff the cow’s milk to see if its useable or stale.
Apparently, the decision comes as an attempt to eliminate the waste caused by millions of pints thrown away because the milk is past the use-by date.
Morrisons' milk bottles will still have ‘best before’ dates on them, as to tell customers when the milk will be at its best, although the milk can typically still be consumed safely many days after the printed date.
As per 2018 estimates from food waste charity Wrap, over 330,000 tons of milk is wasted in the UK each year, accounting for about 7% of the total milk produced. Most of the discarded milk, which accounts for around 490 million pints, is dumped away at home, making it the UK's third most wasted product, coming in after bread and potatoes.
Due to the vast quantity of resources required to feed cows, milk is also linked to substantial carbon emissions. This has contributed to the rapid expansion of plant-based alternatives such as almond, oat, and soy products.
Ian Goode, Morrisons' senior milk buyer, stated that after regular 'use by' dates, excellent quality, well-kept milk still has a few days of life left, and it should be used instead of thrown away in the sink.
According to Morrisons, customers should smell the milk by holding it up to their nose to detect if it is spoiled. If it smells sour, it may have gone bad.
Chunks or curdled milk are further symptoms that the milk is off. Bottles must be kept in the fridge and capped as much as possible to keep the milk fresh for longer.
90% of Morrisons own-brand milk will be affected by the switch to use-by-date-free milk. Morrisons For Farmers milks, Morrisons organic milks, and own-brand British as well as Scottish milks are among the brands.
Source credit: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/morrisons-milk-use-by-dates-packaging-b1989554.html
