Photo : Collected
Food date labels are typically unrelated to food safety; they merely represent a manufacturer’s recommendations for “peak quality” and a shelf life determined by their own market standards. These dates don’t inform you when your food will spoil or ensure its safety.
A study on date labels unveils the confusion surrounding this issue, imposing costs on consumers and businesses while resulting in a staggering amount of waste. In the United States, 40 percent of annually produced food—equivalent to $165 billion—is discarded instead of being consumed. Nine out of ten Americans dispose of food, wrongly believing they need to replenish their supplies due to the mistaken notion that the “sell by” date implies a safety concern for them or their families.
The labeling confusion contributes to dumping of 160 billion pounds of food in the US annually—enough to fill up a football stadium every day. Discarded food is the primary contributor to solid waste in landfills, a critical issue when one in six Americans struggles with food insecurity. Globally, 28 percent of farmland is dedicated to producing uneaten food, an area larger than China.
This is not just a waste of food but also a depletion of the resources invested in its production. Consumer food waste is prevalent in developed countries, indicating that 31 to 39 percent of food waste takes place in high-income areas compared to 4 to 16 percent in developing nations.
The further along the food chain a product is wasted, the more detrimental it becomes to the environment due to the processes of production, processing, packaging, transport, storage, and cooking that have already taken place. Wasted food adversely impacts agricultural land, consumes freshwater, pollutes the atmosphere, and in a world with a rapidly growing population, fuels competition and conflict over valuable resources.
UNEP advocates for a ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ policy – thereby emphasising the need to minimise food waste at every stage of the supply chain, redistribute excess food through initiatives like food banks, and promote composting over inefficient landfill disposal. Addressing this issue doesn’t have to be expensive. UNEP identifies areas for significant savings and economic opportunities in tackling this ongoing problem. Simultaneously, the Natural Resources Defense Council calls for the US to catch up with the rest of the world in addressing food waste, starting with a comprehensive overhaul of food labeling policies.
The most misunderstood date label is the “sell-by” date, designed as a guide for manufacturers to aid retailers in managing stock rotation—not for consumers. NRDC recommends making “sell-by” dates invisible to consumers and replacing them with a clear, consistent labeling system distinguishing between safety-based and quality-based dates. A standard storage and handling guide, similar to the nutrition information box on food products, would also be beneficial.
However, responsibility should not solely fall on producers and retailers; consumers need to play their part too. To combat the $165 billion annual food waste crisis in America and global wastage, everyone must step up to the plate.
Messenger/Fameema
