Food date labels are notoriously confusing -- a problem that's led to 90 percent of Americans tossing perfectly safe food because the date printed on the packaging has passed. But before you do so next time, consider: Unless they're printed on infant formula, those expiration dates are virtually unregulated.
When food is wasted, all of the land, water, pesticides, fossil fuels and other costs to wildlife and the environment that went into producing that food are wasted, too. And Americans waste a lot of food -- about 40 percent of edible food goes uneaten, and too much of that is thrown away simply because of arbitrary dates on packaging.
The Food Date Labeling Act, introduced by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), would create a national system for date labels that distinguishes between when food may have passed its peak freshness and when it may become unsafe, in addition to allowing food to be sold or donated past its "best if used by" date.
It's estimated that creating a standard, meaningful system for expiration dates could divert nearly 400,000 tons of food from landfills each year and save more than 1.5 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions and 192 billion gallons of water.
Help fight food waste by urging your legislators to support the Food Date Labeling Act and keep food, money and natural resources out of the garbage.
Jonathan Long
90% of the time it's some worrying Mother or Wife who does this. They think it turns to poison 1 day past code.
Cooper Thomas
This is too common sense to actually happen
Michael Miller
This is the first piece of sensible legislation I've seen in awhile so there must be some kinda of catch.
Tyler Rogers
As an Iranian immigrant, I'm baffled by how stupid the US food date labels are.
Even in Iran, call it a 3rd world country if you want, every food HAS to have the expiration date and the standard hologram on it. It's highly illegal to sell a food without an expiration date on it.
Josiah Johnson
Mostly I've found, besides dairy, the best by date doesn't mean shit unless it's more than a year.
Landon Flores
>confusing
Brandon Reyes
Grocery Jew reporting.
I'd estimate about 95% of past date food and fresh food shrink (deli, produce) is transferred to local food banks. This is common practice across the US; businesses can track shrink and write it off as charitable donation.
OP's legislation would mostly increase operational cost on business.
Aaron Clark
For most foods an expiration date isn't required though. Fresh fruit and vegetables for instance don't carry dates here.. Meat does, and so does dairy but most other foods just have something called a 'THT' date, which is really just 'best before'.. Sometimes it says 'Do not use after X', but that's only for things like dairly and meat.
Elijah Kelly
i only throw away moldy inedible shit
Isaac Fisher
It's just a change to the label to add a unsafe to eat date to it along with a best if used before date for consumers. I don't see how that's going to substantially increase costs.
Jackson Brown
>FA52 fasz :DDD
Brody Fisher
It's an economy of scale thing. Sure, maybe it's a fraction of a percent per jar of food, but that adds up when your production is hundreds of thousands of jars per year, per SKU.
It's increasing costs on business for no gain. See those other numbers on the jar in OP by the date? Those are production run and lot codes. You can contact the manufacturer of any product and get 'unsafe for consumption' time period using those numbers and the printed best by date. I do it all the time in my line of work.
This is legislative busywork that gives politicians something to talk about without having to actually do anything.
Ethan Morgan
>transferred to local food banks
My ass. This is the stuff dumpster divers go in to get.
Jonathan Hill
We have a supermarket in the UK called marks and spencers its more up market shop. Every weekend they throw out food when the shop shuts. I sometime go and look to see if the throw out any decent shit. one time there was 5 whole smoked salmons, a box of beers that had been opened but was still full, shit loads of cheeses and a leg of lamb it all went out of date that day so I took it home and had roast lamb. they throw away so much shit at supermarkets its fucked up.
Julian Evans
Nah friend, they might be hitting restaurants but grocers are wising up.
>tax breaks >avoidance of food poisoning liability suits
Most have or are in the process of getting rid of food responsibly.
Food banks will even send out drivers to walk into the stock room and collect it, supplying their own reusable plastic bins so grocers have to spend minimal payroll processing it.
Carter Sanchez
This
Jaxon Butler
They're already printing the label. We're literally talking about the cost of the micron thin layer of ink to print one more line on it. People aren't going to call the manufacturer when they're going through the fridge trying to decide what items are still good and what needs to be thrown out, they're likely just going to throw out anything that is past it's sell by date that they don't remember having bought recently.
Evan Howard
I'd say even more people will just open the jar and look at it, smell it, to see if it's okay rather than fret about whether it has become poisonous.
Again, this is legislative busywork. Don't buy into it.
Asher Perry
I throw away food because fuck Africa, not because of a time date stamp.
Mason Bell
Lmao. Look at the Jew getting salty about common sense legislature.
MUH SHECKELS
Jaxon Phillips
Nah friend, dumpster divers have long since been hitting up grocery stores for day old stock.
>avoidance of food poisoning liability suits
That's why they were throwing it in the dumpsters in the first place. That and the fact that consumers simply don't want to buy old or otherwise unsightly foodstuffs that may well still be perfectly edible.
Curious to know where you live and work, because dumpster diving is rather popular and it's well known the level at which grocers and bakers and pretty much anyone who deals with food, wastes it.
Restaurants would be at the bottom of the list. What you said makes no sense. They are the ones most inclined to cut corners, to use ingredients until they're visibly slimy, moldy or falling apart in their freezer, and their dumpsters will be full of half-eaten dogshit.
Leo Sanchez
>I'd say even more people will just open the jar and look at it, smell it, to see if it's okay rather than fret about whether it has become poisonous. If that was the case we wouldn't have massive amounts of food going to waste. It's an effectively zero cost change for manufactures and even if it only reduces the amount of food being thrown out by 10% it would be well worth it. Having to print both types of saturated fats on labels didn't destroy the food industry and neither will this.
Michael Lewis
Are you the 'bee man'?..
Alexander Jackson
You're wrong or haven't worked in a grocery store for many years. Food banks will take stuff up to a week out of code.
Carson Edwards
>Curious to know where you live and work Yeah no, not going to dox myself.
I've worked for both national chain grocers and now a smaller locally owned company. All in recent years have been making the switch to food banks. The smaller local guys have been able to adapt more quickly.
Anthony Jackson
>280 million year old salt >Date of expiry: 2019
James Torres
It gets hard and compacted after a while in the jar. That's literally the only reason I'm aware of for it having exp. dates.
Alexander Sullivan
Date labels are bullshit just eat most of it anyways
Jace Ramirez
Don't eat it! You'll get sick.
Colton Hall
Week over date yoghurt best yoghurt
Hunter Hill
I'll make you hard and compacted, boy.
Caleb Allen
In Finland if it is printed "best before date x" it´s fine to use many days/weeks/months after best-before-date has expired. But if it´s printed "last day to use" in product (meat etc) you can´t use it much later.
My advice is to just check the food by looking and smelling it. Those numbers are not absolute truths.
Jace Brown
That Winchester 1892 saddle ring carbine gets me hard
Owen Nguyen
Just to add to OP, this holds true for pretty much all drugs (prescription and OTC)... Aspirin and Doxycycline excluded
Lincoln Robinson
>Be young me >Grand dad drives truck taking expired food to the dump >He always stop at our home to drop the still perfectly good cakes >Unlimited supply of free cakes >Best childhood ever >Now I have insuline resistance >Was totally worth it
Oliver Ortiz
This. My mother would throw it out a few days before, just to be safe.
Matthew Green
>common sense legislation that improves quality of life
Won't get passed.
Anthony Bell
best before does not means expires by X
how is that confusing
Aiden Richardson
jesus christ, seriously? We did the date - look and sniff - taste and wait method. Check the date, if it's past, smell it, if it smells fine and looks fine have a nibble, if that seemed fine take a bigger chunk and just give it some time to hit bottom.
most of the time if it isn't visibly fucky or smells off, it's fine
Blake Gomez
To all the retards; A lot of companies only print LOT dates, or use a code format for expiration to confuse retailers and customers.
Mostly package candy like M&Ms ect.
There is literally a binder an inch thick with all the companies, and the formats they choose to use to express expiration dates.
On close items, like milk and eggs, its always easy to read you faggots.
On items that do not expire within 5 years its even optional to print an expiration date.
Seriously you are all faggots and retarded as fuck.
Jason Lopez
You would get used cakes from the bakery and eat them?
Or is this some faggot leaf way of refering to those boxed confections
John Russell
No. Most are stupid.
Carson Price
You talking about women and dating?
Eli Gonzalez
your country must be fucking shit then because in here food companies are liable if they fuck up package info and somebody complains so they are very careful with that
Sebastian Ward
We already have that in the EU.
People still don't grasp it because people are dumb.
Christopher Reed
More government overreach and control in our lives... typical liberal horseshit
OP please go back
Anthony Thomas
sounds awesome.
Many FDA standards needed to be created, but they were made decades ago and we have much better insight and research now.
Example: the food "Pyramid" is horseshit.
Will this pass?
Robert Cruz
Produced on the 216th day of 2015.
What is so hard about that?
Luis Rodriguez
Also, America, can we start making nutrition labels Calories, Sodium, etc. "per 100 grams" not by fucking "serving"?
What kind of shit ass standard is that?
Nicholas Rodriguez
The point is: companies are much stricter with their own dates than is necessary from a safety p.o.v.
This is because companies want to ensure it still tastes good when it's eaten. For example Coca Cola might state their cola can be kept for just 6 months, when it's still perfectly safe even after decades.
Nicholas Parker
>OP's legislation would mostly increase operational cost on business. fucking how?
Angel Edwards
I do taste tests on my women I date on their vagonals. Taste bad? Doesn't pass my taste test.
Jeremiah Morris
Don't you burgers call them cakes?
Got them from grocery stores. The rest of the food fed my grand dad's cows and pigs.
Wyatt Perry
We have two different expire dates here (and i assume it's similar across yurop): best before and last day. So when a coke bottle says best before 6 months from now it means it's best before then but still perfectly usable after it and you can rely on your smell and taste to determine if you want to consume it or not
Leo Gomez
??? Yeah, thats the point. They OVER estimate so that they don't get sued. Meaning people throw items away well BEFORE the (actual) Use by date.
But why not improve the food chain instead of this method? Fresh, local, seasonal food instead of perishing nutrients.
Nathaniel Torres
You realize that milk is still okay to drink AFTER the 6th r? OP is Implying that too many (dumbass) people throw otherwise perfectly good food away because it's after the sell by date when, more often than not, it's good for at least another few days-week after.
Hudson Jackson
I have a coke bottle right in front of me. It only has one date (31 October '16) This is a "can be kept at least until" date.
Only products that become dangerous after time, like meat, have an "eat before" date.
Isaiah Bennett
what honestly even becomes poison besides meat and rotten produce?
Seriously?
Jeremiah Morris
maple syrup gets moldy
Lucas Johnson
That's exactly right, only easily spoiled foods (any meat product, processed food, fresh food etc) have the last day date on them and things like canned food and soda has best before. Never said any products have those two dates simultaneously
Leo Gray
>You realize that milk is still okay to drink AFTER the 6th r?
Well no shit son, its called minimum durability date for a reason. With emphasis on minimum.
Lincoln Parker
why does shit like cheese and sausage say you're supposed to refrigerate it when cheese and sausage were both invented thousands of years before refrigerators as a way to preserve food for long periods of time?
Jack Bell
Cold slows down bacteria, mould and yeast. At under +4c food is significantly safer than any temperature above that unless it's +60c. Thousands of years ago weren't exactly the most hygienic
James Sanders
Easiest way to test if you milk has gone bad is to pour a little bit in a cup and microwave it. If it boils normally it's still fine, if it curdles and separates it's gone bad
Dylan Cooper
That's retarded. You don't need anything beyond your eye sight and smell to determine if milk has gone bad or not. And even if it's slightly bad it's not in any way dangerous to you
Dominic Watson
Got this idea for John Olicuck didn't you?
Samuel Diaz
quads speak the truth
Jackson Jones
dont pay attention to the dates look, then smell then taste. if it passes one go to the next, fails throw it the fuck out.
Jonathan Smith
Sure thing faggots, enjoy your DNA infested food
Camden Wood
You're retarded. Easily spoiled foods have gone bad way before you can detect it with your senses