While there has been much improvement in environmental consciousness over the past several decades, one issue that still remains results in 31% of the food supply each year being wasted, amounting to 133 billion pounds of food (Zumbrun). This waste is especially disturbing, considering 10.2% of American households were food insecure at some point in 2021 (Coleman-Jensen et al.), as this food could have contributed significantly to solving this problem. The issue lies with something we interact with on a regular basis: dates on food. Dates on food in the United States are not standardized or regulated consistently except for infant formula, causing much consumer confusion as to which foods are safe to eat and which are not.
Dates on food stemmed from consumers’ desire for food freshness, not safety, as foods are still safe to eat for a period after they pass peak freshness. Before industrialization, consumers often knew the origins of the food they were buying and knew how to determine its freshness, but a combination of store purchasing and the rise of processed foods reduced this guarantee of freshness as well as consumers’ ability to determine it. By the 1970s, customers were concerned and wanted dating information that they could understand, called open dating. However, even supporters said that these date labels would only ensure freshness, not safety, and that failure to standardize the process would just add to the confusion (NRDC). According to a 1975 GAO report, grocery store chains either applied their own dates to foods or followed state and local laws, thus providing a plethora of different dating systems for foods. The report recommended that “Congress should consider enacting legislation to establish a uniform open dating system for perishable and semi-perishable foods” (GAO). However, this did not occur.
Today, open dates are created using a variety of methods. A food producer may conduct a focus group to determine how long it takes before consumers begin disliking the taste of a food, and competing manufacturers may adopt the same dating practice (Roberts). Therefore, these dates still refer to food freshness instead of safety, just like in the 1970s. The FDA and USDA have the authority to regulate food labeling for their respective industries (meat, poultry, and eggs for USDA, and everything else for FDA), so a single labeling system for applicable foods should be enforced by their respective agency (NRDC).
To fix this problem, there are a few problems that need to be addressed. The first is the inconsistent language used in product labels and the resulting consumer confusion. Food packaging interchangeably use the terms “sell by,” “best by,” “best if used before,” best if used by,” or “freeze by” (Roberts). For example, “sell by” refers to how long the product can be sold while still ensuring it will remain fresh for a reasonable amount of time after purchase, making it applicable to the food retailers. By contrast, “expires on” refers to when a food product becomes dangerous to consume, making it applicable to consumers (NRDC).
To deal with the issue of inconsistent language, I propose that two dates should be included on each label. The first is a “Produced” date that would reflect when the food is processed. The type of processing reflected in this date would be specific to the type of good, referring to the date of pasteurization for milk or butchering for meat. The second date is an “Expires” date that indicates when that food, processed in that manner, typically becomes unsafe. Scientific research, or new experiments, would be conducted if needed to figure out specifically how long it takes for food to become unsafe to consume after it is first produced. Since the fundamental production process behind these goods is the same most of the time, the amount of time before expiration in each food category would also be the same, thus preventing companies from enduring costly experiments for each product they wish to bring to market.
From the food producer’s point of view, this two-date system would not increase bureaucracy much either. The Produced date is always the current date, and the Expires date can be derived by adding the time before expiration onto the Produced date. For example, pasteurized milk usually lasts anywhere from 10-21 days from production to expiration (Kandola). Say that through more precise experimentation, this was determined to be 14 days. Milk produced October 10 would expire October 24. This standardized dating system has the additional benefit of ensuring companies will not artificially shorten the shelf life of their products to encourage customers to throw out supposedly spoiled food and buy new versions to increase sales.
The second problem is that customers are not aware why their food goes bad, whether it be spoilage, loss of nutrients, form of processing, packaging failure, or other reasons. Illness from common perishable foods stems from bacteria. Baby formula loses its nutrients after the expiration date, making it unable to fulfill its purpose, which is why it is federally regulated (Roberts). Spoilage time can also be affected by how it is processed, as American milk is pasteurized (heated to remove bacteria) at lower temperatures than it is in Europe, resulting in a lower shelf life and a refrigeration-before-opening requirement that does not exist for European milk (Nelson). Packaging can also be the reason for expiration, as with bottled water, where chemicals leach from the plastic into the water, changing its taste but not necessarily making it unsafe (Radford).
To make sure consumers know why their food goes bad, a QR code could be provided on the label that would direct them to a part of the manufacturer’s website that conveys this information. Additional relevant details could also be provided if applicable, such as the reasoning behind altered expiration dates caused by additives that could be found in the food, and the website would be regulated by the FDA or USDA. As with the dual-dating system, this wouldn’t increase the regulatory burden on companies much either because the information is readily available, and the QR code is a standardized part of each package. The information can also be easily changed if needed without updating the packaging.
The third problem is the delineation between shelf-stable and perishable goods. As discussed, perishable goods would be subjected to these regulations. However, shelf-stable goods don’t need to be. Foods such as crackers do not contain any harmful bacteria that could multiply, unlike perishable foods such as yogurt and meat (Victoria). These items only become dangerous if they are moldy, which is easy for consumers to determine due to their appearance and foul smell, so no further regulation is necessary.
In 2016, Congress proposed the Food Date Labeling Act to standardize this process and advocated for a “best if used by” label for shelf-stable foods in addition to an “expires on” label for perishable goods (Marshall). This approach is not the best solution to this problem. It introduces a new dating system that uses the same terms as the previous confusing dating system, so consumers might not grasp the difference between the new and old applications of the terms. At the same time, it also doesn’t benefit consumer safety. A regulation that results in an increase in complexity with no corresponding benefit should not be adopted.
My proposed label would look like this (this was created with milk in mind):
This layout provides quick information to customers in an easy-to-read and understandable format without subjective measures. For example, the label does not include an equivalent of the current “sell by” date. A “sell by” date means that if food is sold by a certain date, it will remain fresh for a reasonable amount of time after the purchase. Consumers confuse this date for the date the food becomes unsafe to consume, contributing substantially to food waste. Determining if food is fresh enough to eat is a subjective matter and, as discussed, doesn’t necessarily correlate with whether food is safe to eat. Consumers should be able to make their own determinations on this matter. Also not present is a letter grade that determines the food’s freshness. This system was considered when creating the current system for communicating fuel efficiency in cars, but those in the automotive industry rightly pointed out that this letter grade could be misunderstood as a judgment of the entire car, so the system was not adopted (Sunstein). Similarly, using a letter grade to determine how long food remains fresh could be misinterpreted as a judgment on the overall quality of the food.
It is important to note that these regulations assume that the food is safe when it leaves the production plant. Issues like Cronobacter contamination in baby formula, disclosure of which is currently the subject of a bipartisan bill in Congress (Peterson), make their way into the food during production due to unclean factories and is not the result of spoilage.
With regard to food expiration dates, a simple, logical, and relatively low-cost solution that focuses on consumer safety is possible. The FDA can both inform and protect the public by implementing a unified food dating system with additional online information that describes why foods go bad.
Works Cited
Coleman-Jensen, Alisha, Matthew P. Rabbitt, Christian A. Gregory, Anita Singh, September 2022. Household Food Security in the United States in 2021, ERR-309, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
Kandola, Aaron. “How Long Does Milk Stay Good Past the Expiration Date?” Medical News Today, MediLexicon International, 3 Sept. 2021, www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/how-long-is-milk-good-after-expiration-date#how-long-is-it-safe-to-drink.
Marshall, Wyatt. “America Is Finally Getting Food Expiration Labels That Will Make Sense.” VICE, 23 May 2016, www.vice.com/en/article/53qqgn/america-is-finally-getting-food-expiration-labels-that-will-make-sense.
MWD-75-19a Summary of a Report to the Congress on Food Labeling: Goals ..., 29 Jan. 1975, www.gao.gov/assets/mwd-75-19a.pdf.
Nelson, Brooke. “This Is the Reason Why Americans Refrigerate Milk and Europeans Don’t.” Reader’s Digest, Reader’s Digest, 17 Mar. 2021, www.rd.com/article/why-americans-refrigerate-milk-but-europeans-dont/.
“NRDC: The Dating Game - How Confusing Labels Land Billions of Pounds Of ...” Natural Resources Defense Council, NRDC, Sept. 2013, www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/dating-game-IB.pdf.
Peterson, Kristina. “Baby-Formula Makers Face Push To Disclose Contamination Earlier.” The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones & Company, 29 Aug. 2023, www.wsj.com/health/healthcare/baby-formula-makers-face-push-to-disclose-contamination-earlier-6bc047d4?page=1.
Radford, Benjamin. “Why Do Bottles of Water Have Expiration Dates?” LiveScience, Purch, 9 June 2010, www.livescience.com/32636-why-do-bottles-of-water-have-expiration-dates-.html.
Roberts, Jill. “Food Expiration Dates Don’t Have Much Science behind Them – a Food Safety Researcher Explains Another Way to Know What’s Too Old to Eat.” The Conversation, 21 July 2022, theconversation.com/food-expiration-dates-dont-have-much-science-behind-them-a-food-safety-researcher-explains-another-way-to-know-whats-too-old-to-eat-186622.
Sunstein, Cass R. Simpler: The Future of Government. Simon & Schuster, 2013.
Victoria. “Do Crackers Go Bad?” Go Cook Yummy, 18 Aug. 2022, gocookyummy.com/do-crackers-go-bad/.
Zumbrun, Josh. “Here’s Something Past Its Expiration Date: The Expiration Date Itself.” The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones & Company, 8 Sept. 2023, www.wsj.com/us-news/heres-something-past-its-expiration-date-the-expiration-date-itself-45a8fd54?page=1.
Comments