Some very important new expiry date stickers are appearing in supermarkets

The £3 meal deal is a British institution, feeding workers from across the nation for just a few quid.

When considering the options for your dinner combination of a sandwich, snack and drink – obviously you go for the most expensive things on the shelves to try and cheat the system – you might take a look at the expiry date to see if you’ve got the freshest things available.

While this is a good idea, some new expiry dates that have started appearing in supermarkets might make you think twice about what you purchase.

The plastic expiry dates are appearing on single use plastic meal deal packaging, as a way to raise awareness of how what we purchase affects the planet.

Designed by advertising creatives Gagandeep Jhuti and Joe Foale-Groves, over a thousand stickers have been used around supermarkets in London this month – the stickers have also been turning up around the country now, as shoppers start spreading the word themselves.

While working on adverts for supermarkets, the pair noticed a disparity between how these companies claimed to be doing their bit for the environment, and the reality of their single-use plastic usage in-store.

Shockingly, it’s predicted that single-use plastic takes between 500 and 1,000 years to break down, meaning pretty much every bit of plastic that’s been created is probably still out there in some form – the first plastic was invented in 1907.

Gagandeep and Joe told UNILAD: “So, imagine this. It’s the year 3019. Animals can now be tried in court. The prisons are overflowing with pigeons. You are no longer around. But the plastic water bottle you bought with your meal deal in 2020 has finally started to decompose. Even if the future isn’t quite as weird as that, it is true that your meal deal could be pretty much immortal.

“At the moment we’ve been sneaking Plastic Expiry Date stickers onto meal deal items ourselves since the start of January, but loads of people have asked to join us in spreading stickers to their local supermarkets.

“The ultimate goal would be for supermarkets to add the Plastic Expiry Date to packaging themselves, as well as hurrying to reduce single-use plastic packaging from their shelves.”

The aim of the project is to make people stop and reconsider what they’re purchasing, and maybe put back that single-use plastic in a bid to help the environment – or at the very least recycle it.