As part of the publicity surrounding yesterday’s launch of the DEFRA report and public consultation on food security, Hilary Benn suprised (and no doubt outraged) a lot of people by suggesting that shoppers should ignore "best before" dates on food to reduce the amount thrown away,
Checking the original DEFRA announcement (July) on its food labelling review (being conducted with the FSA and WRAP), these statistics caught my attention in particular:
"consumers often lack confidence in date labelling: 53% of consumers would never eat fresh fruit and vegetables past the “best before” date; 56% would never eat bread and cakes past the “best before” date; and almost 10% leave a day’s ‘buffer’ before any date. 21% would never “take a risk” with any food close to its date, even if it appeared fine."
It appears that a lot of us get confused between best-before dates, use-by dates, sell-by dates and display-until dates. And so we throw away food, which goes into landfill and generates harmful methane, and also puts pressure on farmers to produce more than is actually required (and that’s before you start taking over-eating into consideration).
With the world looking ahead to serious food security issues created by climate change and population explosion, the last thing we need is needless waste increasing the amount our food producers need to provide.
“Use by” dates indicate time during which food is safe to eat. “Best before” dates indicate a period in which food is of optimum quality and after which it is may still perfectly edible but may decline in quality. These are mandated by law. Sell-by and Display-until are stock control dates used by retailers and are not mandated by law.
So should the Government insist on labelling changes? Not according to Stephen Robertson of the British Retail Consortium, who said "Scrapping best-before dates won’t reduce food waste. Customer education will."
So of course, we want to know what you think.
I suspect, given that you’re here on ooffoo, you’re probably doing a pretty good job of avoiding unnecessary food waste / using left-overs. But have you ever misunderstood food labels? Do people you know misunderstand them? How can we best ensure, as quickly as possible, that less people bin perfectly good food?
Categories: food, seasonal eating
And here’s another thought – how would you react if the Government suggested a return to rationing?!
I’ve been around since well before sell by dates were invented. They’re a useful tool but not to be followed slavishly. We have noses and taste buds – you can generally tell if food is off and wasting it unecessarily is a big sin in a hungry world!
Hi have chosen this as one of my top 3 ooffoo posts for this week. Thanks Brenda
That’s cool, Brenda, thanks! Fancy “heart-ing” me too, if you like the article (up the top under the title)? I’ll pop over to your site now – it’s been over a week since I took a peek.
In 2007, I found, in an elderly relative’s cupboard, some coffee labelled “Best before may 1976″. It was sealed. I used it. It was among the best coffee I have ever drunk. Another packet, which was almost(!) in date was open. It smelled dusty and I didn’t even think about using it. We need to use our discrimination. A friend, who is a public health inspector told me that the dates on drugs, meat and baby milk all need to be taken seriously. All others leave room for judgement.
When they started putting best before dates on rock salt (which has been around for several millenia), I lost all confidence in any dates on food. That was in 1990. I don’t waste food and am perfectly fit and healthy (probably helped by the fact that I don’t use unnecssary disinfecants in my home either)
Whilst I do not want to catch any of those bothersome stomach problems from eating rotten food. I find it amazing that we lived for almost 2000 years before SBDs were invented. We get bottled water that we’re told has took a million years to work its way through all the rocks etc, but we gotta drink it by next tuesday or whatever.
Really helpful, thank you everyone who has posted on this subject. Especially the “drugs, meat and baby food” comment.
It’s funny – i was just talking about this to friends yesterday and we all agreed that our noses are the best tool. I think the SBDs make people lazy and many people have lost the ability (and the common sense) to judge for themselves. I wouldn’t take too many risks with meat but most other things I completely ignore the dates. Good for Hilary Benn!