Kroger has announced its plans to standardise date labels for its Our Brands food products to provide clearer guidance to its customers to reduce household food waste. The change is part of Kroger’s Zero Hunger, Zero Waste social impact commitment.
By using standardised labels, the US supermarket chain aims to educate its customers on product quality and safety information.
The new simplified labels will apply to multiple product categories, including dairy, deli, bakery, and fresh and frozen grocery.
Kroger began to transition its Our Brand food products earlier this year to feature either a ‘Use By’ or ‘Best if Used By’ date label.
The ‘Use By’ label is used to represent food safety, indicating the deadline for when it is no longer safe to eat, while the ‘Best if Used By’ label is used to represent food quality, indicating the deadline for guaranteed freshness, rather than an affect to the food’s safety.
Howard Popoola, Kroger’s vice president of corporate food technology and regulatory compliance said: “Kroger recognises food waste often takes place in our customers’ kitchens simply because product date labels can be confusing, resulting in safe-to-eat food regularly being tossed out.”
Jessica Adelman, Kroger’s group vice president of corporate affairs and chief social impact officer added: “By implementing a standard and simplified new date labelling approach, Kroger and our customers can play an instrumental role in preventing tonnes of food waste from arriving at landfills, resulting in a healthier, stronger planet and communities free of hunger and waste.
“Kroger is always searching for meaningful ways we can reduce food waste and make it easier for our customers to be Zero Heroes, joining us on our Zero Hunger, Zero Waste journey because we cannot do it alone.”
Kroger plans to complete the Our Brands date label transition in 2020
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