A LEADING supermarket chain has relaxed its advice on the freeze-by dates of perishables as part of a national campaign to reduce the country's mountains of wasted food.

Labels on Sainsbury's food products currently read 'freeze on day of purchase' but the guidance will soon be altered to 'freeze as soon as possible up to the use-by date'.

Stores nationwide have opted to change the labels to make it clear to customers products can be popped in the freezer and preserved at any point before they become inedible.

It is estimated 4.4 million tonnes of food is unnecessarily binned in the UK each year and the supermarket's head of product technology for fresh and frozen food, Beth Hart, says the chain's move will not affect food safety.

"The 'freeze on day of purchase' advice needs to be changed as there is no food safety reason why it cannot be frozen at any point prior to the use-by date," she said.

The decision by Sainsbury's has been welcomed by the Love Food Hate Waste conservation campaign, whose research has revealed only one in five people regularly freeze food.

Campaign spokesman Andrew Parry said: "Now we can all look in our fridges and know that we can freeze most items which are about to go out of date and enjoy them at a later time."