The war on waste gained momentum this week, when DEFRA secretary of state Hilary Benn told the Futuresource Conference that he intends to make it “absolutely clear exactly what is safe and what is not safe” to eat when it comes to sell-by and best-before dates (p1).

These labels serve a clear purpose, both in stores, where retailers rotate stock according to its sell-by date, and at home - if the public is able to make the crucial distinction between use-by labels that only appear on high-risk foods such as meat, fish and dairy and best-before dates, which are an indication of quality.

Consumers, it seems, are binning anything past the dates printed on the packaging, regardless of what the product looks like and in many cases, when it is still perfectly safe to eat.

I can see why for some in the fresh produce industry this is a sore point because in this sector, we do not need use-by dates to highlight potential food safety concerns. Best-before labelling is little more than a number taking up valuable space on a pack - it does not tell us anything that we cannot see with our own eyes.

Education is the most important catalyst for change, but it will take more than non-specific recommendations to achieve that - even if Benn’s proposals are a step in the right direction. What we need is a clear strategy, but it will take joined-up thinking across the supply chain to make this happen.