Use-by date confusion causes food waste

Consumer confusion about just what date labelling means is contributing significantly to food waste, according to a scientific review paper in the journal Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety.

Different regulatory date labelling frameworks are contributing to confusion and misunderstanding in the marketplace regarding how the dates on labels relate to food quality and safety, the review says.

The authors of the paper have called for food manufacturers, retailers, policymakers, consumers and other stakeholders to collaborate to address the current date labelling situation.

Specifically, they call for the following actions:

• Alignment within the food industry to develop a more consistent best practice date-marking system that takes into consideration on-package storage instructions. Uniformity is the first step to better inform and educate the consumer.
• Provide clear, simple consumer direction on food quality and safety. Data show that many consumers don’t understand the difference between a ‘use-by’ and ‘best before’ date.
• Conduct more research to evaluate and further develop indicator technologies (such as time and temperature monitoring devices) that could provide information relating to food product quality or safety.

The full scientific review paper is available here.