New colour-changing milk bottle labels will tell you if your fridge is too warm

Milk bottles will have colour-changing labels to indicate whether the fridge is too warm. [Photo: Getty]
Milk bottles will have colour-changing labels to indicate whether the fridge is too warm. [Photo: Getty]

Colour-changing milk bottle labels will warn people if their fridge temperature is too high and turning the dairy drink sour.

The new labels, developed together with waste reduction charity Wrap, will start appearing on bottles in a major UK supermarket next year.

The ‘thermochronic’ labels, which contain heat-sensitive ink, have been developed in response to research by Wrap which found households are throwing away 490 pints of unconsumed milk a year – an average of 18.5 per home.

Warm fridges are the most common reason for the waste, according to Wrap. A temperature of between zero and five degrees is recommended by the Food Standards Agency, but a typical UK fridge is two degrees warmer than this, Wrap claims.

The new labels will help consumers to recognise if their fridge is too warm.

Andrew Parry, a food and drink advisor at Wrap, said in a statement: “Making sure our fridges are running at the right temperature (below 5oC) could help reduce the amount of milk thrown away by more than 50,000 tonnes a year, saving householders at least £25 million.”

The group have also called for more people to freeze milk until they are ready to use it.

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