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Asda, Tesco and Morrisons shoppers buying fruit at the supermarkets are being urged to look for a three-digit code on produce before heading to checkouts.

Most major UK supermarkets, including Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrisons and Waitrose, no longer display 'best before' dates on fresh fruit and vegetables, instead replacing them with a date code to reduce food waste. 'Best before' dates simply relate to the quality of food and indicate when a product is at its optimal best - not when it is unsafe to eat. According to research by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), removing best before dates from fresh produce, like fruit and veg, could help to prevent thousands of tonnes of edible food from going to waste each year.

Fresh fruit is among the most commonly thrown away foods as shoppers can mistakenly assume they are no longer safe to eat once the 'best before' date has passed.

So by removing these dates from fruit, supermarkets are aiming to encourage shoppers to make their own decisions about what to buy based on the look and feel, thereby helping to reduce the amount of food that goes to waste.

But while the best before date are no longer displayed in most supermarkets, shoppers who want an indication of how fresh a piece of fruit is can check for a code instead which corresponds to the production date.

Both Asda and Tesco use a code that features a letter followed by a number. The letter represents the month of the year, for example 'A' for January and 'B' for February, and so on. This is followed by a number which indicates the day of the month.

Richard Price, British Grocery Expert from BritSuperstore, explains: "Many supermarkets have a hidden code on their fresh produce labels, meaning Brits can find food that will actually last the week rather than going soggy or over-ripe before they've had a chance to use them."

Explaining the codes used by Asda and Tesco, Mr Price said: "The code is a letter followed by a number. The letter represents the month - 'A' for January, 'B' for February, 'C' for March, and so on - while the number shows the day. For example, I27 indicates a best-before date of 27 September."

Morrisons uses a similar code system across its stores which is also three-digits. The first letter corresponds to the letter of the month, followed by the day number. So 'S27' would indicate September 27.

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Mr Price added: "Best-before dates are about quality rather than safety. Most fruit and vegetables are safe to eat past this date if they look and smell okay. But for items with a use-by date, like pre-cut fruit, you must eat them by the expiry date to avoid risk."

"These codes may look confusing at first, but they are the key to knowing exactly when your fruit and vegetables are at their best. Once you understand them, you can make your groceries last longer and avoid throwing away perfectly good food."