Food expiration dates don’t mean what you think - Carolyn Beans
How much of the food in your fridge
will you toss before it reaches the table?
Hamburger buns from last summer’s picnic?
Milk past its sell-by date?
Carrots that lost their crunch?
Countries around the world waste
huge amounts of food every year,
and the United States
is one of the worst offenders.
37% of US food waste
comes from individual households.
And roughly 20% of those food items
are tossed because consumers aren’t sure
how to interpret the dates
they’re labeled with.
But most of those groceries
are still perfectly safe to eat.
So if the dates on our food don’t tell us
that something’s gone bad,
what do they tell us?
Before the 20th century,
the path between where food was produced
and where it was eaten
was much more direct,
and most people knew how to assess
freshness using sight, smell, and touch.
But when supermarkets began
stocking processed foods,
product ages became harder to gauge.
In the US, grocers used packaging codes
to track how long food
had been on the shelves,
and in the 1970s,
consumers demanded in on that info.
Many supermarkets adopted a system
still in place today called open dating,
where food manufacturers or retailers
labeled products with dates
indicating optimum freshness.
This vague metric had nothing to do
with expiration dates or food safety.
In fact, it’s rarely decided
with any scientific backing,
and there are usually no rules
around what dates to use.
So most manufacturers and retailers
are motivated to set these dates early,
ensuring customers will taste their food
at its best and come back for more.
This means many foods are safe to eat
far beyond their labeled dates.
Old cookies, pasta, and other shelf-stable
groceries might taste stale,
but they aren’t a health risk.
Canned foods can stay safe for years,
so long as they don't show signs
of bulging or rusting.
Low freezer temperatures keep bacteria
that cause food poisoning in check,
preserving properly stored
frozen dinners indefinitely.
Refrigerated eggs are good
for up to five weeks,
and if they spoil,
your nose will let you know.
And you can always spot spoiled produce
by off odors, slimy surfaces, and mold.
Of course, there are some cases
where you’re better safe than sorry.
The USDA recommends eating or freezing
meat within days of purchase.
Beyond their printed dates,
ready-to-eat salads, deli meats,
and unpasteurized cheeses
are more likely to carry
pathogenic bacteria
that can slip past a smell or taste test.
And the dates on infant formula
are regulated to indicate safety.
But while some of these labels work
as intended, the vast majority don’t.
In a 2019 survey of over 1,000 Americans,
more than 70% said they use date labels
to decide if food is still edible,
and nearly 60% said they’d toss
any food past those dates.
Restaurants and grocers often do the same.
To avoid all this waste,
many experts advocate for laws
to require that date labels use
one of two standardized phrases:
“Best if used by,” to indicate freshness,
or “Use by” to indicate safety.
This solution isn't perfect,
but some US researchers estimate that
setting these standards at a federal level
could prevent roughly 398,000 tons
of food waste annually.
Grocers could also try removing
date labels on produce,
as several UK supermarket chains have done
to encourage consumers
to use their own judgement.
Many experts also advocate for policies
incentivizing grocers and restaurants
to donate unsold food.
Currently, confusion around dates
has led at least 20 US states
to restrict donating food
past its labeled date,
even though the federal government
actually protects such donations.
Countries like France go even further,
requiring that many supermarkets
donate unsold food.
Regardless of what
your government decides,
the best way to prevent food waste
is to eat what you buy!
And don’t forget that your eyes,
nose, and tongue
are usually all you need to decide
if food is fit for consumption
or the compost bin.
