Supermarket chain Tesco has announced it will be taking 'best before' labels off of almost all its own-brand fruit and vegetables to cut down on food waste.

The giant wants to stop "confusion" caused by shoppers not being able to tell the difference between the 'best before' date and the 'use by' date.

Tesco says this confusion can often lead to people throwing away perfectly good food.

According to a recent poll by the National Federation of Women's Institutes (NFWI), less than half of people surveyed understand the difference between 'use by' and 'best before'.

The 'use by' date indicates the date food should be thrown away due to a safety risk of consuming the product any later than this.

The 'best before' date indicates the date food is no longer at its best quality - but is still safe to eat.

A waste reduction body called Wrap estimates that we throw away two million tonnes of food each year in the UK - and a third of this is blamed on 'confusing' food labels.

Mark Little, head of food waste at Tesco, said: "We know some customers may be confused by the difference between 'best-before' and 'use-by' dates on food and this can lead to perfectly edible items being thrown away before they need to be discarded.

"We have made this change to fruit and vegetable packaging as they are among the most wasted foods.

"Many customers have told us that they assess their fruit and vegetables by the look of the product rather than the 'Best-before' date code on the packaging."

It is estimated that nearly 70 Tesco lines of products will be included in the scheme - such as potatoes, apples and tomatoes.