‘No need to sniff milk in store’, Morrisons clarifies

Recently, Morrisons’ initiative to scrap use by dates on its milk brands to reduce milk wastage and recommendation of sniff test to customers was trolled on Twitter. The supermarket has now clarified that it will be retaining best before dates and customers “don’t need to sniff” milk in stores.

The announcement met with a mixed response on social media as questions are being raised of bringing such a move amid Covid-19 surge. “I take it that if Morrisons are scrapping use by dates on milk in favour of the sniff test, they’ll be fine with me opening milk in the store and sniffing it before I decide to buy?” a person tweeted, tagging the supermarket.

Ruth McDonald, technical director at Morrisons, told Asian Trader: “Customers don’t need to sniff our milk in store. There is still a date on there (a best before date) and the length of the date has not changed, so customers can expect to get the same amount of time to use their milk as they always have. If they store their milk well they should get more life from their milk beyond the best before date.”

Clarifying the concern raised on coming up with a sniff test amidst Covid, which might affect a person’s taste and smell, McDonald explained:  “We are not excluding anyone who can’t assess their milk using their sense of smell, there is still a Best Before Date on the packaging and it is still the same length of time as the current Use By Date.

“We would advise anyone who can’t use the sniff test to go by the Best Before date on the packaging and dispose of their milk after that date.”

From 31 January Morrisons will scrap ‘Use By’ dates on 90 per cent of its own brand milk – and encourage its customers to use a sniff test – to help to reduce food waste in the home.

Morrisons anticipates the move will stop millions of pints of its own brand milk from being thrown away every year.

‘Use By’ dates will be scrapped from Morrisons own brand British and Scottish milks, Morrisons For Farmers milks and Morrisons organic milks in store – supplied into Morrisons by Arla farmers. Morrisons South West milk and The Best Jersey milk are yet to be converted.

Research shows fresh milk can often last a number of days past the ‘Use By’ date shown on the bottle. However, UK customers are routinely throwing away milk – as they incorrectly believe the milk is unsafe to drink. Environmental charity WRAP estimates that 85 million pints of milk waste may be a result of customers sticking to ‘Use By’ labels or ‘once opened use within’ guidance – when products may still be good to consume.

Best practice with the FSA and Defra is to only apply a ‘Use By’ date when required for food safety reasons. Applying a Best Before date to indicate quality on all other products means people have longer time to use their food.

Morrisons has already scrapped ‘Use By’ dates across some of its own-brand yogurt and hard cheese ranges in 2020.