Food-date labels are adding to the problem of food waste, a new study says.
The use of food-date labels such as “use-by” and “best if used by” causes consumer confusion that results in many shoppers discarding food that is safe to eat or donate, according to the November 2023 Consumer Food Insights Report.
The survey of U.S. 1,200 consumers from Purdue University’s Center for Food Demand Analysis and Sustainability found that most consumers mistakenly interpret “best if used by” and “use-by” labels as an indicator of food safety.
The Congressional Research Service recently reported that 7% of all U.S. food waste is because of date-labeling confusion, according to a news release.
“The goal of this month’s CFI survey was to gather consumer perceptions about what these food date labels mean,” lead author Joseph Balagtas, professor of agricultural economics at Purdue and director of CFDAS, said in the release.
The USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service defines “use-by” and “best if used by” as references to peak food quality rather than the date after which the food is no longer safe to eat. Because there is no official standard for food-date labeling in the U.S., the report said consumers are unsure what the labels mean.
“Over half of consumers connect 'best if used by' and 'use-by' dates with food safety, while over 30% believe these labels are related to food quality,” Balagtas said in the release. “This information problem is a kind of market failure and leads to waste. One potential fix to misinformation is for the government to set standards for food date labels to help inform consumers what is and is not safe to eat to help reduce food waste in the U.S. The recently proposed Food Date Labeling Act is an attempt to achieve that goal.”
U.S. Reps. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, and Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., and U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn, earlier this year reintroduced the bipartisan, bicameral Food Date Labeling Act.
The legislation, according to a news release from Pingree's office, establishes an easily understood food date labeling system: "Best If used by” communicates to consumers that the quality of the food product may begin to deteriorate after the date, and “use by” communicates the end of the estimated period of shelf life, after which the product should not be consumed.
Under the bill, food manufacturers can decide which of their products carry a quality date or a discard date. It also allows food to be sold or donated after its labeled quality date, helping more food reach those who need it, the release said.
Food safety attitudes
In addition to the survey exploration of food-date labels, the Purdue Consumer Food Insights Report also looked at consumer perceptions of foodborne-illness risks.
“We found that consumers believe the risk of contracting a foodborne illness is higher when eating food at a restaurant compared to eating food they prepare at home themselves, which is consistent with data on the incidence of foodborne illness,” Purdue's Balagtas said in the release. “So, it is not surprising that we also see that consumers who are more risk-averse when it comes to their food, eat home-cooked meals more frequently than consumers willing to take more risks with their food consumption.”
A variety of store-bought goods have the potential to contain foodborne bacteria that cause illness. Even so, the report said consumers were more likely to select raw meat items as foods that pose a high risk of foodborne illnesses.
“We see a gap of more than 20 percentage points in the rate at which raw meats were selected compared to leafy greens, milk, flour and raw fruits and vegetables, despite the fact that some of these items that are perceived as ‘safer’ have caused foodborne illness outbreaks in the past,” Balagtas said.
The Interagency Food Safety Analytics Collaboration, a group tasked with monitoring the causes of foodborne illnesses in the U.S., recently reported that the contribution of fresh produce to foodborne outbreaks is comparable to that of raw meats, and in some cases is greater, the release said.