We’ve written before about the ugly food movement – a growing set of entrepreneurs and activists attempting to combat food waste by getting more superficially damaged or misshapen produce into the hands of consumers, rather than into the landfill. Now a supermarket in Denmark is combatting another large piece of the food waste puzzle – expiration dates.

In many countries, expiration dates have little or no legal requirements, and it is at the discretion of food companies to choose a date they believe their product is “best before.” In many cases these dates result in edible food being discarded rather than sold or donated, because producers are motivated to choose earlier dates to either push more product or avoid the risk of selling something less than fresh.

Danish supermarket WeFood is built on the premise that most of this food is perfectly good, and can be sold at cheaper prices. WeFood sells only goods that are past their expiration date or have slightly damaged packaging – at prices up to 50% lower than standard supermarkets. Denmark has already cut their food waste by 25% in the past five years, and this supermarket (and others like it) are likely to bring that number even higher.

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