Norway's Top Dairy Introduces 'Best Before, But Not Bad After' Label To Fight Food Waste

Many milk cartons in Norway will now be stamped with the words "best before, but not bad after" as a way to combat food waste. Tine, the Nordic nation's largest dairy cooperative, announced on January 9 that they would introduce the practice pioneered by companies like the dairy brand Q-Meieriene and egg producer Prior.

According to Q-Meieriene, nearly one-third of Norwegians have thrown away milk on the expiry date without checking to see if it is still good. This is a major contribution to food waste, and now other Norwegian dairy brands like Tine are taking notice and making a change.

Tine, Q-Meieriene, and Prior have all now made the move to swap their expiry dates for "best before, but not bad after" on products like eggs, milk, sour milk, cream, juice, yogurt packs, and school milk. Lars Galtung, director of comunications and corporate responsibility for Tine, said that the company's goal is to change all of its product labels during 2018.

Tine's press release offered credit to their competitors for the idea, and Q-Meieriene likewise applauded Tine's new expiry labels. "It's great that Tine is now going to use the same marking as Q on its dairy products. Food waste is a major societal challenge and we have a common interest in reducing food waste in Norway. Therefore, it is very positive that we can stand together on common labeling," said Q-Meieriene CEO Bent Myrdal.

Tipp topp 👍 opp for @TINE_SA som starter opp med å merke produktene med #ikkedårligetter Tusen takk til 'storesøster' @TINE_SA for anerkjennelse til @QMeieriene . Hyggelig med 'godord' fra konkurrent! https://t.co/SKti3lrnov

— Bent Myrdahl (@QBentM) January 9, 2018

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