U.S. Unreasonable Date Label Causes Waste

If the Americans do not throw away food according to the sales deadline, the saved food can reach 3.6 million kilograms. The Boston supermarket is selling fast-dated food at a low price.

Quick question and answer: If you exceed this date, will you?

a) Check the first few sentences to see if it is intact

b) Continue reading without hesitation because you don’t believe the date tag

c) Turn off the page as fast as possible

If you choose a), you will find that this article has nothing to do and is intact; if you choose b), it is good; if you choose c), then you belong to the majority. A recent national survey found that 84% of Americans discard food according to the time stamped on the packaging.

A study published in May 2016 confirmed that consumers have not figured out what they mean in the face of countless date labels. For example, the “best expiration date”, “use before the following date” and “best freshness preservation period” are just the most common, and those “expiry date” and “sales term” are even more puzzling. The most frightening thing is that there is no The date of the tag. (This study was co-sponsored by Harvard University's Food Law and Policy Directorate, the Johns Hopkins Future Livable Center, and the National Consumer Coalition.)

However, despite the tags being so confusing, in the 2015 study conducted by Johns Hopkins University, 91% of Americans said that they would pay attention to the date tag before eating. Moreover, a recent food and health survey found that the "expiration date" is the most important factor in food packaging. Seventy percent of Americans will consider this date when buying or eating food.

"These surveys prove that consumers make reference to date labels when making decisions," said Roni Neff, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Future Livability, and the lead author of two studies. "People misunderstood these labels and people still don't The problem food is thrown away."

While these misunderstandings are costly, the recent report by ReFED, the United States food waste management organization, estimated that US consumers spend an additional US$30 billion annually. The report also found that if the use of date labels can be standardized, it can avoid the direct waste of 3.6 million kilograms of safe and intact food. Considering that 47 million Americans live in an environment where food is not guaranteed, this discovery is significant.