The UK’s Waste and Resources Action Programme (Wrap) has collaborated with the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Defra to publish new date label guidance for food manufacturers and retailers to reduce wastage.

The new guidance offers collective recommendations that ensure the safety and quality of food and its adherence to legal requirements.

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In the UK, nearly two million tonnes of food is wasted annually as it is not used in time and approximately one-third of it is due to wrong interpretation of the existing date labels on the food product by the consumers.

“This new guidance will make packaging much clearer for consumers, saving them money and reducing waste.”

The guidance is expected to drive down the food wastage in the country.

UK Environment Minister Thérèse Coffey said: “We know that confusing labels can contribute to food waste by suggesting that edible items need to be thrown away sooner than is necessary.

“This new guidance will make packaging much clearer for consumers, saving them money and reducing waste.

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“I encourage all food businesses, large and small, to use this guidance to help them put the right date mark on food and help to guide people on the refrigeration and freezing of products which are crucial to reducing the amount of edible food thrown away.”

The guidance focuses on using helpful logos that will help consumers to understand the product easier.

Wrap is also calling for the freezing Snowflake logo to reinstalled where it might have been removed, as well as placing a new Little Blue Fridge icon on the labels for refrigerated foods.

Wrap CEO Marcus Gover stated: “A key way to help reduce household food waste is to give people as long as possible to use the food they buy. Labelling information can help with many aspects of this.”