Aldi has announced it will be making a change to all its fresh milk to help reduce food waste.

The supermarket will be removing ‘Use By’ dates and replacing them with ‘Best Before’ dates on milk bottles, except for filtered milk.

The change will be rolled out in its stores across England and Wales by the end of the year to prevent milk from being thrown away unnecessarily.

According to waste reduction charity WRAP, nearly 300,000 tonnes of milk is wasted by UK households each year, with half of households stating that the reason for pouring it away is due to it not being consumed by the Use By date.

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As long as milk has been stored properly and doesn’t smell bad, it can be safe to use past its Best Before date, therefore Aldi will be encouraging shoppers to perform a ‘sniff test’ to determine whether their milk is still fine to drink.

Liz Fox, Sustainability Director at Aldi UK, said: “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.

“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.”

The removal of Use By dates is Aldi’s latest move in its effort to cut its food waste as it works towards its goal of halving this by 2030.

Aldi has already removed Best Before dates from around 60 fresh fruit and vegetable lines including apples and pears, citrus fruits, potatoes, carrots and onions.

Earlier this year, the supermarket rolled out its partnership with food surplus app Too Good To Go nationwide. 

Customers can buy a Too Good To Go ‘magic bag’ of food that is approaching the end of its shelf life for £3.30, with each bag containing at least £10 of groceries.

That’s not all though as Aldi recently replaced different coloured caps on milk bottles with clear ones to improve recyclability.