'Here's a superbly-kept secret: All those dates on food products - sell by, use by, best before - almost none of those dates indicate the safety of food, and generally speaking, they're not regulated in the way many people believe. The current system of expiration dates misleads consumers to believe they must discard food in order to protect their own safety. In fact, the dates are only suggestions by the manufacturer for when the food is at its peak quality, not when it is unsafe to eat.' (NRDC, 2013)
(Source: http://www.nrdc.org/food)
We are used to seeing date labels on our food products and we have shaped our consumption habits around them. But we do not ask the important questions behind them and assume they represent the cut off date when they should no longer be in our refrigerators. In September 2013, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Harvard University published a report which looks at the role of food labels in consumer behavior in the United States.
The report explains that the historical point of food labels was to indicate the food peak freshness and not its safety. The downside of this system is the failure of binding standards and no federal law to back it. Due to this, consumers have no way of knowing what these dates actually mean. Once the food has passed the best-before date, handling it will become legally complex and that is why most of the food is just thrown away (even though it is not unsafe).
In order to put more meaning behind these labels, freshness and safety need to be separated from each other (like originally planned). The regulation behind labels must be transparent and available to consumers. The usual confusion comes from the use of best-before, sell-by or use-by labels on foods with no explanations.And lastly, the importance of storage temperature (rather than storage time) should be highlighted. The freshness and safety of food products is largely related to specific storage conditions, something that food labels cannot predict.
Little changes in our consumer behavior can make a difference: if one third of the food in the world is wasted, every little helps. Here is a little guide on how to make the most out of your fridge by NRDC (click to enlarge):
(Source: http://www.nrdc.org/food)
Do you follow best-before dates and have they affected your consumer behavior? I have never fully trusted these labels and now I see why.
Till next time,
Laura
Yea i normally dont follow them to, most people need to use their common sense and just look whether their food 'turned bad'! More importantly, these labels also means that supermarkets have to throw away 'out of date' food which might not have 'turned bad'. Just think of the food thrown away, while people elsewhere starve to death.
ReplyDeleteYou inspired me to do a post on whether or not future climate change would affect food supply and how that might create societal disorder. perhaps we could collaborate on something!
I agree, this generates a lot of waste for the supermarkets too! I am happy to hear that my posts gave you some 'food for thought' for your own blog, I look forward to reading it! Make sure you let me know once you come to it. And sure, perhaps you write on Facebook or Google+ and we'll see how we can help each other out!
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