When Lyndsey over at Count On It offered to send me and my Mum out some ‘Count On It..To Remind You’ food freshness labels I took her up on her offer. The labels come in a handy little box that dispenses the labels…meaning you don’t have to spend ages peeling them off a backing sheet like you do some stickers.

The labels are designed to be used on all manner of products but primarily foods that go in the fridge once opened…such as baby food, baked beans, mayonnaise, etc. Lyndsey found that as a busy mum to two young children she wasted a lot of food because she wasn’t quite sure how long it had been in the fridge after opening and she didn’t dare serve it to anybody in case it had been opened longer that recommended.   She then decided to invent these labels to help other people who found they were doing the same thing and chucking out lots of food just because they were not quite sure how long it had been opened. When life is hectic you don’t really stop and think about writing the date of opening on the foods in your fridge…so these labels are here for you to quickly take one and pop it on the packaging of the product…such as a jar or tub. As the labels are scratch off you don’t need to hunt around for a pen and because they come in a handy dispensing packet you can pop the box in the fridge so they are always close by when you need them. We have found that the labels stuck quite well to most things but they keep falling off the plastic milk bottles. 

Here is a photo showing three examples of foods you could use them on. 

Lyndsey has lots of ideas of foods you could use these stickers on. She suggests pasta sauces, deli goods, meat and fish, dairy products, baby foods, mayonnaise,. fruit juices and batch freezing. She also gives some ideas of non-food goods to use the stickers on such as medication, contact lens solutions, eye drops, beauty products, air filters and water filters.  I think if you are a busy person with a hectic life or even just a bit forgetful then these will probably be really useful for you. Personally I found that I didn’t really use the labels much in my trial period. I feel that I would use them when I bought a new jar of salad cream or maybe a bottle of tomato sauce but that is about it. As I don’t buy those products all that often I wouldn’t use the labels all that regularly. One box would probably last me months. When I open a jar of sauce or baked beans, etc I tend to use the whole jar or tin all at once so there is no need for me to use a label. Obviously every family is different so you may find that these labels are exactly what you are looking for.  

The round sticker has numbers around the outside and then a ring of numbers in the middle of the sticker. The outside numbers represent the date of the month and the inner numbers represent the month. You open your jar of sauce, for example, then you scratch off on the sticker the day and month that you opened it. My Mum says that she thinks it would be useful if the stickers had a year on them too. She thinks the labels are especially useful for freezing things and she would like it if she could scratch on the year as then there would be no confusion over dates on items being put in the freezer for long term storage.My mum has been using these labels at the school where she works. She has dispensed all of the breakfast club’s cereals in to tupperware containers and instead of scratching the date opened onto the label she has been scratching the best before date onto the label and sticking it onto the container. This is another reason she thinks that the labels would be better if they had a date on. She has just been scratching the year into the label with a pen. She also finds the labels very useful for marking the date opened on fruit juices, soft cheese and cream in the breakfast club’s fridge. She says that as the staff manning the club varies on a daily basis the labels are a good way of letting them all know when the products have to be consumed by. This then saves money as the staff make sure the products are consumed while fresh and not just needlessly wasted as no-one could remember when they were opened.

Lyndsey says that one box of Count On It labels could save the average family up to £28 a month. I don’t think they could save me that kind of money as I’m certainly not chucking out that much food a month because of not knowing how long it has been in the fridge. Having said that, you might be different to me and feel that you are chucking out way too much food because of just that reason…in which case you might be able to save yourself some money with these labels.                                                                  

At the time of writing this they have an offer on the labels. You can buy 3 boxes of 25 labels for £5.48 (inc P+P) , you can buy 4 boxes for £7.96 (inc P+P) or you could buy a subscription of 12 boxes for £24.00 (inc P+P). If you buy the subscription then they will deliver you 3 boxes every quarter, for one year. I think the subscription would make a good gift for a food lover or somebody who is keen on reducing the amount of food waste they chuck out.

If you would like to be taken to the site to buy some Count On It labels please click here.

If you would like to visit the Love  Food Hate Waste website please click here.