Sainsbury's has announced it is to alter its advice to customers on freezing products in a bid to slash food waste.

New labelling rolled out across the supermarket's UK stores will drop the long-standing 'freeze on day of purchase' recommendation in favour of telling customers that the product can be frozen up to the use by date.

Research by WRAP, the government's waste adviser, has found that 60 per cent of people think food must be stored in the freezer as soon as they get home from the supermarket, while a separate survey revealed only 21 per cent of people had frozen food nearing its use by date during the past week

The body estimates that changing labels could save as much as 800,000 tonnes of perfectly good food from the bins of overzealous customers each year and help cut the 7.2 million tonnes of food and drink thrown out by UK households.

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