A supermarket has issued an important message to customers who buy milk from their store.

Co-op is making changes to their own-brand dairy product in a bid to try and reduce waste. The retail giant is also hoping the move will help households during the cost of living crisis.

The store is adding a new label to its own-brand milk products telling customers to freeze the milk. It comes after data revealed more than £150m of milk is wasted every year, reports Nottinghamshire Live.

The Co-op hopes encouraging customers to store milk in the freezer will help cut down on the 70,000 tonnes of milk wasted annually. The new on-pack message from Co-op will read: “Don’t waste me, freeze me, in a suitable, clean container, then defrost in the fridge, use within 24 hours.” The new messaging will appear across all Co-op own brand milk products from September 2022.

According to the Co-op, two-thirds of UK adults don’t freeze milk at home, and 31% didn’t know you even could. Of those unaware that milk could be frozen, 34% of them said they’d now start putting their milk in the freezer.

Milk is best within one month of freezing and for larger bottles it’s best to decant them into a container. When it’s ready to be used, you can defrost it in the fridge to thaw fully and then use the defrosted milk within 24 hours.

Catherine Dishington, environment and sustainability manager at Co-op, said: “We’re committed to reducing our impact on the planet and we’re trying to help our customers and members make small changes that collectively, can make an impact.