Feedback responds to reports The Real Junk Food Project under investigation for using food past its use by date

For immediate release.

In response to news reports that Adam Smith, co-founder and director of The Real Junk Food Project, is under investigation by West Yorkshire Shared Services Trading Standards for using food in its cafes that are past their use-by dates, Carina Millstone, Feedback’s Executive Director said:

“We are appalled to hear that Adam Smith, director of The Real Junk Food Project is under investigation for serving ‘out-of-date’ food.

It has been proved time and again that date labels, particularly best before dates, are confusing, often inaccurate, and lead to food waste both in shops and in homes when people mistakenly bin food that’s still good to eat. While ‘use by’ dates on some products are important for food safety, there’s a debate to be had on how widely applied these labels are, sometimes to food that really doesn’t need them. Only a month ago, a committee of MPs agreed with Feedback that ‘current date labelling is potentially misleading and unnecessarily confusing for customers’.

The real crime here is the waste that is caused when people throw perfectly edible food away, because they are confused about which labels are important to follow and which are just guidelines. For example, ‘best before’ labels, which have nothing to do with food safety, often cause confusion. Supermarkets can and must find other ways to ensure effective stock rotation than misleading labels that help no one and cause vast amounts of waste.

The Real Junk Food Project has been rightly feted for saving thousands of tonnes of food from an early grave and feeding thousands of people a good, healthy and delicious meal at their cafes. It’s time we all learned to trust our senses on when food is good to eat – and it’s time we found a better way to label our food to ensure nothing needlessly goes to waste.”

ENDS

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