• What is a "freegan"? (Make sure your answer would be clear to someone who has not read the article.)

• What’s a vegan?

What is a "freegan"? (Make sure your answer would be clear to someone who has not read the article.)

I once spent a very happy hour in the bins at the back of a Marks & Spencer supermarket. A group of freegans – people whose dietary constraint is that they don't pay – took me along on their regular midnight "bin-diving". In the supermarket's well-stocked dumpsters we found unbelievable bounty: roasts and salads, smoked salmon, tiger prawns and extravagant ready meals, asparagus, strawberries, cherries, cakes, cheeses, chickens all in perfect condition. Sell-by dates on most of the food had passed just an hour or so earlier.

What is a "freegan"? (Make sure your answer would be clear to someone who has not read the article.)

A freegan is a person who buy foods that you can’t find in a supermarket because although they are in a perfect condition, the date of consumption is passed.

• Explain how the journalist was able to prepare lunch for eight people and spend only 40 pence.

Explain how the journalist was able to prepare lunch for eight people and spend only 40 pence.

We did not find anything that was not perfectly edible. How could we tell? By using those old-fashioned pre-barcode tools, our eyes and noses. When the six of us emptied our rucksacks back in their flat we had nearly £3,000 worth of food. The freegans, all university students, told me that taking up bin-diving had changed their lives. They were richer and they had never eaten so well. I was there in the cause of journalism, of course, but I did manage to cook a three-course lunch for eight people the next day at a total cost of 40p (l had to buy a couple of onions). Well done, Marks & Spencer – great food, imaginatively presented, and they hadn't poured bleach or dye in their bins as most supermarkets do.

Explain how the journalist was able to prepare lunch for eight people and spend only 40 pence.

The journalist was able to prepare lunch for eight people and spend only 40 pens because he took the food in the bins where he didn’t pay but he paid 40 pens because he sold a couple of onions.

• Why does the journalist compliment Marks & Spencer's?

Why does the journalist compliment Marks & Spencer's?

We did not find anything that was not perfectly edible. How could we tell? By using those old-fashioned pre-barcode tools, our eyes and noses. When the six of us emptied our rucksacks back in their flat we had nearly £3,000 worth of food. The freegans, all university students, told me that taking up bin-diving had changed their lives. They were richer and they had never eaten so well. I was there in the cause of journalism, of course, but I did manage to cook a three-course lunch for eight people the next day at a total cost of 40p (l had to buy a couple of onions). Well done, Marks & Spencer – great food, imaginatively presented, and they hadn't poured bleach or dye in their bins as most supermarkets do.

Why does the journalist compliment Marks & Spencer's?

The journalist expresses admiration for Mark & Spencer because in their waste there aren’t numerous chemical products.

• How does the government explain the enormous waste of food in Great Britain?

How does the government explain the enormous waste of food in Great Britain?

On Tuesday Hilary Benn, the Environment Minister, announced a government initiative: an end to sell-by and best-before dates, as a way of blocking food waste. "Too many of us are putting things in the bin simply because we're not sure, we're confused by the label, or we're just playing safe." He's absolutely right: Wrap, the Government's waste and recycling agency, says that we throw out more than 220,000 tonnes (£1 billion) of edible food each year while it is still technically in-date – a sizeable amount of the amazing 30 per cent of all the food we buy that is discarded uneaten.

Wrap's survey tells a depressing story. Fifty three per cent of us would never eat fruit or veg after its best-before date. Thirty six per cent believe best before is the same as "use by". Half of us don't understand the different date labels “use by”, “best before”, “sell by” or “display until”.

How does the government explain the enormous waste of food in Great Britain?

The enormous waste of food is caused by consumers’ confusion on the date labels or because the consumers aren’t sure about the integrity of food.

What has the government proposed to reduce the amount of food waste?

What has the government proposed to reduce the amount of food waste?

On Tuesday Hilary Benn, the Environment Minister, announced a government initiative: an end to sell-by and best-before dates, as a way of blocking food waste. "Too many of us are putting things in the bin simply because we're not sure, we're confused by the label, or we're just playing safe." He's absolutely right: Wrap, the Government's waste and recycling agency, says that we throw out more than 220,000 tonnes (£1 billion) of edible food each year while it is still technically in-date – a sizeable amount of the amazing 30 per cent of all the food we buy that is discarded uneaten.

What has the government proposed to reduce the amount of food waste?

The government has proposed to make an end to sell-by and best before date in order to reduce the amount of food waste.

• Which of the date labels are intended for shoppers and which one is the most important? Why is it important?

• Which of the date labels are intended for the shops and what purpose do they have?

• Why should the food industry be blamed for the confusion and consequent waste of food?

It's easy to blame ignorant consumers for this senseless waste. However, one view holds the food industry at least in part to blame. "Sell-by and best-before don't do consumers any good at all," Wrap's Julia Falcon told me. "They are to do with stock control more than safety, and should never have been visible."

Supermarkets have to keep the supply of fresh and chilled food rolling through their shelves, because most of such stock is ordered a couple of weeks earlier. "Display until" or "sell by" is no more than a manifestation of the queue of products waiting in their store rooms. So why do shops simply not put "display until" in code, and give customers a simple "use by" date?

• Which of the date labels are intended for shoppers and which one is the most important? Why is it important?

Use by and best before. Best before is the most important because after that date the product is still good to eat.

• Which of the date labels are intended for the shops and what purpose do they have?

Sell by or display until are date labels for shop to know how long the products can be displayed for sale.

• Why should the food industry be blamed for the confusion and consequent waste of food?

The food industry should be blamed because labels don’t really care about safety and cause confusion and the consequent waste of food.

• Which of the date labels are intended for the shops and what purpose do they have?

• Why should the food industry be blamed for the confusion and consequent waste of food?

• Why is it difficult to set a "use-by" date for ready-made meals? (Give two reasons.)

• What advice does the journalist give shoppers when it comes to deciding whether or not to throw out food?