Food Waste: Understanding Food Date Labels

With the sharp increase of grocery prices this year, shopping for food has become a source of tension and strain for many of us. Gasps can be heard at cash registers. Frustration seems to hang over the parking lot, a gathering fog of all of the recalculating being done between docking the cart and getting back in the car. 

Countless writing has been dedicated to unpacking the causes and impacts of inflation. Many anticipated inflation as one of the long-term financial impacts of COVID. We’ve heard about grain being stuck in Ukraine (although that is said to be improving), and recognize climate change as a root cause. Few of us (myself included) are beginning to hear about how inflation has made this an exceptionally difficult season for farmers. 

It’s difficult for me to wrap my head around the complexity of these issues. And I don't intend for this to be a deep dive into inflation. What I do understand is that there are changes I and my family can make to ease the burden of high grocery prices. 

Cutting back on food waste, which has been the focus of this series, has been increasingly important. My weekly menu planning is based on expiration labels much more than usual. Oddly enough, however, I’ve never taken time to understand what these labels mean: what is the difference between a “best by” and a “best if used by” date? How are these different from the “sell by” dates? When is food really unsafe to eat?

Let’s start with the variety of labels you might find on store shelves:

• Sell By: these dates tell the retailer when the item must be sold by. Most commonly found on dairy products. Milk is typically good for about a week after this date with eggs lasting for 3-5 weeks after (WebMD).

• Best By/Best if Used By/Best if Used Before: This variety of “best by” labels indicates the day when the quality of the food will be at its best. 

• Use By: Similar to the Best By date, this is the standard used to label baby formula. 

None of these dates - nor any of the other variations you’ll come across - indicate when food is no longer safe to eat. 

Surprised?

I sure was. Even more shocking is what the misunderstanding of these labels costs us. We waste a tremendous amount of food because of our assumptions about the information provided on expiration labels. 

How much? 

According to the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), we’re talking $32 billion dollars every year. This breaks down to about $1365 to $2275 per family according to an estimate published in 2013 by the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). 

Date labels, says the Food & Drug Administration, inform us when that item will attain “peak quality and flavor.” This is what the United States Food and Drug Administration (USDA) categorizes as open dating. These are dates that are supplied by the producer or the store that sells those products. 

Open date labels can be confused with the closed dates which may be printed on products as well. These dates indicate when the item was made. 

Surprisingly, these dates are not mandatory. In fact, baby formula is the only product with federally-regulated “use-by” labels. Other products, like poultry and sterilized foods, are labeled to help identify the source in case of food-borne illness.

In other words, not only are these labels added by producers and retailers, they are not regulated by standards established by the government or any other organization. Most importantly, food date labels do not reflect how safe it is to eat those foods. When it comes to spoiled food, “only the nose knows”!

Given all this, it’s understandable why we are misinterpreting these labels. The USDA tells us that, with the exception of baby formula, “a food product should still be safe and wholesome if handled property until the time spoilage is evident.” Thankfully, foods tend to give us signs of spoilage including molds, discoloration, and - of course - smells. When in doubt, the USDA provides more details.

All this is to say that a better understanding of these labels can help prevent food waste - to the tune of $100-$200 a month! So while the price labels are concerning, I hope that understanding these date labels can potentially help offset some of our checkout frustration.