You might think that this date is the absolute last day that food is safe to eat. You will be wrong. But you won’t be alone in coming to that false conclusion, because the system behind food label dates is an absolute mess.
There is no national standard for how those dates are set, or how they are described. Instead, there is a mixture system – a mixture State laws, best practices, and general guidelines.
“It’s a complete Wild West,” said Dana Gunders, executive director of ReFed, a nonprofit trying to eradicate food waste. However, “many consumers really think that they are being told to eliminate food, or that even when they don’t make that choice, they are breaking some rules,” she said.
For food makers, the dates being sold are actually more about brand protection than they are about safety, explained Andy Harrig, vice president of sustainability, tax and commerce at FMI, an association for the food industry.
The sell-by date, often referred to as the expiration date, is a company’s estimate of when a food item will taste best, and its optimal date. “You want people to eat and enjoy the product when it is at its peak, because that will increase their enjoyment, [and] Encourage them to buy it again.”
The main consequence of this unclear labeling? food waste. Lots of it.
Understanding dates
Although many companies put dates on their products, infant formula is the only food required to be used before dates in the United States, said Meredith Carothers, a food safety expert with the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service.
But the rules are very different for many perishable products.
While consuming items that can be stored on the shelves after “best if used by date” are likely to be fine, fresh meat and poultry may even spoil Before The date is on the label. That’s because store refrigerators tend to be cooler than our home refrigerators, Carothers explained.
How did we get here
Manufacturers began printing sales by product information in the early 1900s. Initially, the date was written in code: retail employees had to match each code with a date with a key, but for customers the codes were unintelligible.
At first, the “open dating” tactic seemed to work.
But by the end of the decade, those who examined the system were less convinced of its merits.
The study found that “there is little evidence to support or refute the claim that there is a direct relationship between open-shelf dating and actual freshness of food.”
There is no way to “accurately determine the dates of the different products, there is no consensus as to what type of date or dates… to use the product, or even which products to view at all, and there are no real guidelines on how to display the date,” the report’s authors wrote.
Where do we go next: the smell test
To avoid food waste, some advocates encourage people to rely on their senses when determining if certain foods are safe to eat.
Morrisons offered these guidelines to consumers: If it looks sour or smells sour, throw it away. If it looks and smells good, you can take it even after the date.
“When food breaks down past the point we want to eat it, our defenses work very well,” said ReFed’s Gonders. “If the food doesn’t look good, or if it smells good, or if it doesn’t taste good, or if it’s sticky…then definitely, we shouldn’t eat that food.”
Another way to prevent confusion, experts say, is to regulate the language used to describe these histories.
“Best By” vs. “Used By”
Here’s the logic: Companies that decide to put a date on the labels have to make it clear to consumers if the item is unsafe next. The date, or if it tastes a little tasteless. If it’s a safety issue, they should use ‘use by’. If it comes to food quality, ‘best if used by’ is the way to go.
Gunders and agencies like the FDA and USDA point to this label format as a good solution. Several companies have already made the transition.
The Del Monte Company, which sells canned fruits and vegetables among other products, uses “the best if ever used.” In an email, the company explained that the dates are a “how-to guide”. countries that have Dates on packaged salads also use the “best if used by” label.
Even if the bill becomes law and all companies make the same changes, there will still be a missing piece of the puzzle: alerting consumers to the shift and what it means.
After all, consumers who choose an item today won’t necessarily know that “use by” is different from “better if used by,” or whether either is different from something like “enjoy it” or “sell by.” ”
In order to make the dates more visible to the public, FMI’s Harrig said, there needs to be a “consistent and reactive effort to help consumers think about this.” “I think it will take some work to find out.”