Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have any plans to consult on the abolition of, or fundamental change to, best before dates after the UK leaves the EU.

We wish to improve consumers’ understanding of the difference between ‘Best Before’ and ‘Use By’ dates as this issue has been identified as a potential source of food waste. The Government’s adviser on food waste, WRAP, has done a lot of work on this issue and improvements have resulted from that work. Consumers need to have the information to help them make the right decisions about the food they buy therefore we have no plans to abolish or make fundamental changes to durability indications.