When that bag of languishing lettuces starts to go a little limp or an old carton of yogurt is discovered in the depths of the fridge, most Americans will look for guidance from the date printed neatly on the food label.
But with the exception of infant formula, these labels are not actually a gauge of food safety. In the US, the marked dates are only intended to indicate quality and they are not regulated by any federal agency.
“Food date labels are really like the wild west – there are no standards,” said Jeffrey Costantino, a spokesperson at ReFed, a non-profit advocacy organization working to reduce food waste.
Consumer confusion can take a toll on the climate and on household budgets.
Roughly a third of the US food supply – a whopping 80m tons – goes uneaten according to recent estimates done by ReFed. Wasted food accounts for roughly 149bn meals, uses close to a quarter of freshwater resources and 16% of US cropland, contributing 6% of the total US greenhouse-gas emissions, the group also found. Food label confusion certainly isn’t the only culprit behind these staggering numbers and the figures include waste from various stages of the supply chain, but close to half happens after food gets to households.
Sicknesses associated with mold and bacteria found on bad food can be serious and the fears are warranted, but the labels do little to ward off risks, experts say.
“There is nothing concrete for these dates related to food-borne illness,” said Dr Andrea Glenn, a postdoctoral research fellow and registered dietitian at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. She notes that both a global food system where products travel farther, and food handling practices can play a larger role in food safety.
“These dates generally refer to when a product will have the best flavor or quality or when to sell the product by and are not related to safety of the food,” she said. It’s far more useful instead to look for signs of spoilage. Odd or off odor, flavor, color or texture are better indicators of potential danger.
However, an overwhelming majority of Americans still rely on the dates for food safety decisions.
A study published in 2019 that relied on surveys of more than a thousand people across the US found that 84% have tossed a food because the date marked on the package had passed. The same study found that more than a third also believed the dates were federally regulated, with an additional 26% reporting they were unsure.
“This is an indicator that the current system is misleading consumers,” said Emily Broad Leib, the director of Food Law and Policy Clinic at Harvard Law School and one of the researchers behind the study, noting that an absent federal standard has only amplified confusion and misuse. “No two states have the same rules which means they are clearly not based in science.”
According to Broad Leib, part of the study’s aim was to identify what labels would work best if they were applied more broadly. There have also been moves to try to push out the labels entirely, but consumer advocacy groups quickly rebuked the idea.
“Consumers really want this and they demand it,” she said, adding that as people are increasingly far-removed from food production, there are concerns over not knowing how long something might last.
So, now the challenge is ensuring broader understanding of the labels – and a more standardized system. But the labels themselves, Broad Leib said, “are meant to be liberating”. With one easy-to-grasp quality-based date, consumers could better discern when something will be at its best without adding on fears of getting sick. “You should feel like as long as it tastes and smells good and you enjoy it, you can eat it.”
On Tuesday, a bipartisan and bicameral trio – Representatives Dan Newhouse, of Washington, and Chellie Pingree, of Maine, and Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut – again took aim at the issue and reintroduced the “Food Date Labeling Act”, a bill that would create a national standard around the labels. The legislation was originally introduced by the same coalition in 2021 without success.
Similarly, California legislators took up the cause, proposing legislation to ban sell-by dates and add distinctions to clarify that “best if used by” was a quality indicator, while “use by” would denote food safety. This measure too is modeled on one that died in committee after being introduced in 2016.
But, according to Broad Leib, this time things might turn out differently. “It is hard to get Congress to take action unless there is an emergency,” she said, adding that advocates have been pushing for standardization for more than a decade. “It took a while to socialize the concept for why this is needed.”
Even if new rules are implemented, consumers will need to be brought up to speed.
“There needs to be some sort of explanation for consumers on what they mean,” Costantino, from ReFed said. “There are so many different things manufacturers say that it does cause confusion.”
Still, like Broad Leib, he’s optimistic. Even though the numbers are still high, per capita, food waste has decreased slightly in recent years.
“No one likes to throw away food,” he said, noting that people need stronger support to ensure they can easily, affordably and conveniently cut back on food waste at home. “We are optimistic about the next few years because there are a lot of solutions out there,” he added. “We know what needs to be done and it is just a question of making it happen.”
• This article was amended on 14 May 2023 because an earlier version referred to 80 tons of uneaten food. The figure is 80 million tons.
