Hidden supermarket label tells you if fruit and vegetables will go off

A savvy mum has left shoppers amazed as she shared a clever trick to reduce food waste.

It comes as the shocking extent of Britain's food wastage problem was highlighted by WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme), which found that the volume of discarded vegetables in the UK could fill the iconic Wembley Stadium to its brim eight times over.

Households are throwing away nearly three million potatoes, one million bananas, and 2.1 million carrots each day.

But one thrifty woman has devised an ingenious method to curb the squandering of fresh produce.

Known as Money Mum and celebrated for her Sunday Times bestseller 'Save Yourself Happy', she frequents the reduced sections of supermarkets, renowned for snagging deals.

As a personal finance guru, she's been dispensing valuable advice to families grappling with the escalating cost-of-living crisis. She now claims that the secret to extending the shelf life of your groceries lies in deciphering a simple code on their labels, reports the Mirror.

Gemma, who boasts a following of 440,000 on Instagram, shared her insight: "Ok did you know this! A is the month so Jan. The number is the date so say the 18th. Stop getting food waste."

Drawing attention to labels on leaks in a Tesco supermarket, she displayed how the codes could offer insight.

The online influencer stated that packaging featuring the code 'F15' points to June 15 and explained: "Want to know a hack for buying freshers food? The F is the month! So June if F, and that is month six. January would be A."

The savvy shopper continued: "It means you can buy the fresher food rather than it going off quickly - wasting food and money."

A Tesco worker had previously confirmed she was taught the coding. As an example, the online personality contrasted two packs of mangetout; one displaying the code A3 while the other showed A6.

The letter relates to the month, the number signifies the day, thus A represents January while three and six note the third and sixth days of the month respectively.

Social media feedback from Money Mum's enlightening post was filled with surprise and approval. One supermarket worker posted: "Until I started working in Tesco doing the reductions. I had no idea about this. It's such a good thing for helping reduce waste."

Another supportive comment highlighted the potential environmental benefits: "It's meant to stop so much waste."

A third user said: "This is amazing! [I] was getting so annoyed not knowing how old the veg was when it doesn't have a date on it! ".

Echoing the sustainable theme, another individual reflected: "These dates are to help with stock rotation and reduce waste. Too many people do not use food because of a date on the pack."

A further note of amazement was added by another viewer: "Wow did not know that."