New milk bottle labels will change colour if your fridge is too warm

£25 million of milk is thrown away every year

Jessica Ransom
By Jessica Ransom
published

A trial of temperature-sensitive labels on milk bottles is being launched in an effort to reduce the amount of milk wasted each year. The labels change colour if the fridge is too warm.

Are you guilty of throwing away a lot of milk each month? Perhaps you’re nervous about using it beyond its best before date or you always add too much to your cereal, and it ends up being poured down the sink.

Well if you’ve ever sniffed the milk to try and gather if it’s still okay or not, a new trial could help you keep your milk fresher for longer.

Waste reduction charity Wrap is developing colour-changing labels in collaboration with retailers and dairies that react to the temperature of your fridge.

Read more: Things you didn’t know you could freeze

The initiative hopes to cut down the amount of milk that is thrown out, as it is estimated that around £25 million worth of milk is poured away every year in the UK.

Milk should be stored below 5°C and should always be returned to the fridge as soon as possible to avoid it becoming too warm.

Classen Rafael / EyeEm/Getty

The charity also recently revealed that you could save £70 a month by altering the temperature of your fridge.

Research from Wrap also found that only one in 10 people regularly buy milk to freeze it with 17 per cent of consumers mistakenly thinking it is un-freezable.

One of the biggest reasons for milk wastage for it not being used in time but a large amount of respondents also admitted to serving too much, like when you pour it over your breakfast cereal.

Wrap are currently having the new milk labels scientifically tested to decide the best size , shape and colour of the labels and if they are successful they’ll be rolled out by all dairies in the UK in the future.

Andrew Parry, a special advisor on food and drink at Wrap, told The Telegraph: ‘Making sure our fridges are running at the right temperature (below 5°C) could help reduce the amount of milk thrown away by more than 50,000 tonnes a year, saving householders at least £25 million.’

Jessica Ransom
Jessica Ransom
Senior Food Writer

Jessica is a freelance food writer, stylist and recipe tester. She previously worked as Senior Food Writer at Future. While at Future Jessica wrote food and drink-related news stories and features, curated product pages, reviewed equipment, and developed recipes that she then styled on food shoots. She is an enthusiastic, self-taught cook who adores eating out and sharing great food and drink with friends and family. She has completed the Level 1 Associate course at the Academy of Cheese and is continually building on her knowledge of beers, wines, and spirits. 

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