You could be spending hundreds of dollars more on groceries each year because of a tiny, outdated food label
- Replies 15
Do you ever feel like you're throwing your money away when you have to discard groceries that are starting to go off? It's a frustrating experience that we've all experienced at some point.
Nine times out of ten, the reason why we have to get rid of perfectly good food is due to those tiny numbers on the packaging: the best before date.
You may not realise it, but this set of numbers can have a major impact on your cost of living – and not in a good way. In fact, many people believe that best-before dates are losing their meaning and contributing to our escalating food wastage problem, which currently costs Australians $37 billion annually.
Currently, unnecessary food waste accounts for close to one billion tonnes of the world's annual production, or 17 per cent, and produces roughly twice as many emissions as all the cars driven in the US and Europe combined.
According to Stop Food Waste Australia's Chief Operating Officer Mark Barthel, Australians are one of the worst offenders per capita.
He explained: 'In Australia, 2.5 million tonnes of food is thrown away from homes yet reducing this could save the average family between $2200 and $2700 a year.'
'Wasting food can cost an individual household up to $2700 per year - that’s one in five bags of groceries which each household is throwing away each week.'
On top of that, household food waste has a significant negative environmental impact, contributing to 6 million of the 17.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions from glasshouse gases each year.
Food rescue non-profit OzHarvest CEO Ronni Kahn added: 'A huge concern is that 70 per cent of that food (dumped in Australia) is perfectly edible, at a time when so many people are struggling to put food on the table – this should not be happening.'
The Fight Food Waste Co-Operative Research Centre (FFWCRC), the world's largest R&D initiative fighting food waste, is now bringing together governments from all over the nation with supermarkets and food non-profits in an effort to reduce the amount of produce thrown away.
Australia's participation in the Fight Food Waste Co-Operative Research Centre (FFWCRC) is also a component of the federal government's effort to reduce the amount of produce that is thrown away in the nation by half by the year 2030.
Mr Barthel, who also serves as a special advisor to FFWCRC, readily admitted that this goal is 'ambitious'.
'No country has done it yet,' he remarked.
The 'best-before' and 'use-by' dates are the two primary labels currently present on the majority of foods sold in Australia.
Foods marked with a use-by date, such as dairy products or meats, must be consumed before that period for health or safety reasons, according to strict regulations set forth by Food Standards Australia and New Zealand.
After this date, such products cannot be sold lawfully.
Additionally, the organisation said that food with a best-before date can still be consumed after that point as long as it has not been harmed, degraded, or perished.
Similarly, some foods with a best-before date on them may also be sold legally after that time so long as long as they are not damaged or deteriorated. Canning vegetables, cereals, biscuits, sauces, chocolate, sugar, wheat, and frozen meals are a few examples of these items.
However, many of us don't seem to notice this distinction.
Only 51 per cent of home food managers grasped the significance of both food date labels, with 49 per cent incorrectly interpreting one of the labels, according to an alarming 2019 FFWCRC report.
Additionally, 7 per cent of the more than 5200 respondents surveyed for the study were unable to interpret either label.
Consumer research consistently shows that misreading date labels are one of the main reasons why food waste occurs in households, according to Kahn.
'Not everyone understands the difference between use by and best before which often leads to perfectly edible food going in the bin - 2.5 million tonnes from homes every year and over 500,000 tonnes from the retail sector (in Australia),' the food rescue advocate said.
'The most commonly wasted ingredients from our homes are fresh produce like fruit, veg, bagged salad, bread and leftovers.'
'Also meat and dairy items often end up in the bin as people rely on the food labels.'
Food producers and sellers, including major supermarkets, are required by Food Standards Australia New Zealand to label foods with best-by or use-by dates.
The best before labelling system, in contrast, is more about stock turnover for big retailers and producers than it is about assisting customers, according to Grant Miles, owner of the discount grocery chain Cheaper Buy Miles.
He remarked: 'The average consumer pulls something out of the cupboard, sees the best-before date and throws it out.'
Mr Miles stated that for 25 years, his Melbourne-based stores have been selling discounted inventory near or after best-before dates.
He also described the new initiative as 'encouraging people to buy more and it turns over more stock’.
He emphasised the fact that some canned items may be labelled with a best-before date that is more than two years out, even though FSANZ doesn't have to enforce this labelling.
Mr Miles added: 'The date on that can is completely meaningless.'
The grocery store owner also pointed out that the labels had been in use for decades.
'It’s a legacy ... it’s outdated - excuse the pun,' he joked.
The recent decision by UK shops to eliminate such marks on uncut fresh produce is primarily to blame for the renewed discussion surrounding best-before dates.
The UK's reform came in response to a survey by the environmental organisation Waste Resources Action Program (WRAP), which discovered that British families were discarding nearly 2 million tonnes of food annually because the food was 'not eaten in time' and that the date label was noted as a contributing factor in one-third of these situations.
Retailers and policymakers in the US are planning to make similar moves as the UK to encourage consumers to help reduce food waste as part of a campaign called Fight Food Waste.
The executive director at ReFED, Dana Gunders, claims that the level of support for standardising the language on date labels has incrementally grown, especially over the past few months.
However, there is a large number of consumers who remain completely oblivious to the fact that most of these dates have no scientific basis and are largely arbitrary.
Richard Lipsit, the owner of a grocery store chain in California specialising in discounted food, believes that 'sell-by', 'best-by', and 'expiration' labels don't necessarily mean that the food is off after the date has been reached.
For example, he claims that whole milk can still be safely consumed up to a week after its 'use-by' date.
Gunders went on to say that our bodies are much more adaptive than we give them credit for. 'Our bodies are very well equipped to recognise the signs of decay when food is past its edible point,' she said.
'I believe that we’ve lost trust in our senses and instead, we’ve replaced it with trust in these dates.'
Gunders is currently part of a campaign to get Australians to re-engage their senses. The campaign is called 'Look, Smell, Taste, Don’t Waste,' which aims to educate consumers about how to properly choose food.
Last year, a major British supermarket, Morrisons, even eliminated 'use-by' dates from most of their store-brand milk jugs, replacing them with a 'best-before' label.
'Most people believe that if it says “sell by,” “best by” or “expiration”, you can’t eat any of them,' said Richard Lipsit, who owns a supermarket in California. 'But that’s not actually accurate.'
'In fact, the only time you should actually be wary of eating food past the “sell by” date is if it’s raw chicken, eggs, or meat,' he went on to say. Many other packaged foods can be eaten for years after the 'best-before' date..
'Our bodies are very well equipped to recognise the signs of decay when food is past its edible point,' Gunders said. 'We’ve lost trust in those senses, and we’ve replaced it with trust in these dates.'
There are attempts to intentionally urge consumers to re-engage their senses in the UK, where big supermarket Morrisons even removed ‘use-by’ dates from the majority of store-brand milk and replaced them with a ‘best-before’ label.
The UK's Too Good To Go campaign, which uses new labels to encourage customers to use their senses when deciding whether or not to toss a food item with a best before date, is presently promoting the Look, Smell, Taste, Don't Waste awareness campaign.
OzHarvest's Kahn claims she is open to the discussion in Australia, especially if it serves to increase awareness.
The food advocate said: 'Australia should be watching the results from the UK.'
'Extending food labelling dates (safely) is highlighted as one of the industry-led interventions in the National Food Waste strategy, which could see significant results across retail, hospitality, institutions and household food waste.'
The Australian environment ministers are currently considering a national awareness campaign that would be comparable to the one that eventually forced major UK supermarket retailers to abandon best-before labelling policies for whole food.
While Australia's best-before date dilemma is one of the items being examined, Barthel claims that the current focus is on improving people's behaviour.
He noted: 'It’s being actively considered.'
'It seems to be working in other places ... (but) we need to make sure industry is not opposed and food remains safe to eat.'
'In my personal view, removing it from whole produce is a good thing to do.'
He also cited a predictive model, which suggested that the nation's food waste may be reduced by 250,000 tonnes annually.
The two labels in the Australian New Zealand Food Safety Code, according to FSANZ, will not be reviewed at this time. For the time being, major stores are still wary of such actions.
The group said: 'FSANZ is not currently reviewing the date marking requirements in Standard 1.2.5 (of the code). Any proposal to change the standard would need to be considered by the Food Ministers’ Meeting.'
Woolworths confirmed that the company is aware that its UK counterparts have done similar initiatives as the one being pushed in the country.
'While we note the changes made by retailers in the UK, discussions regarding this in Australia are still in their infancy and need additional engagement with all of industry and governments,' a spokesperson said.
Best-before dates may not be going away anytime soon in Australia, but there is still work that can be done right now.
Expanding successful initiatives — like the Love Food, Hate Waste push, which is already being used in NSW, Queensland, and ACT — across the country could shift consumer behaviour, Barthel noted.
He added: 'The challenge is about education and awareness.'
'When households are made aware of the level of food waste they generate, our research shows that over three-quarters of them will want to take action - especially right now with the cost of living crisis.'
It will take a year or two for the campaign, according to Barthel, who cited the UK's journey towards food awareness. Even though nobody wants to waste food that they have paid for, most people nonetheless do it unconsciously.
He explained: 'Raising awareness helps us become more conscious of our behaviour ... then it takes a reasonable period of time to normalise these new behaviours that help us reduce food waste and save money.'
However, he also noted that it was still 'early to say' whether Australia would decide to eliminate the best-before date on uncut fresh fruit and vegetables.
Kahn speculated that bringing attention to the problem may be the best way to determine how eager the public is for change.
She said: 'Raising awareness of the issue and educating consumers is key to influencing change at a national level and any changes to food labels would need to be supported by consumer education.'
'Sadly we can’t rescue food from people’s homes, but we can inspire them to stop wasting it in the first place.'
Checking food labels has been a routine part of our grocery shopping for years. It helps us to know what we're buying and to make sure that we're getting the best possible product for our money.
However, with the new initiative being pushed, it seems like we need to revisit our shopping habits.
So, members, what do you think about this? Does it make sense for the government to revise food labels for the sake of curbing food waste, or does it not make a difference? Let us know in the comments!
Nine times out of ten, the reason why we have to get rid of perfectly good food is due to those tiny numbers on the packaging: the best before date.
You may not realise it, but this set of numbers can have a major impact on your cost of living – and not in a good way. In fact, many people believe that best-before dates are losing their meaning and contributing to our escalating food wastage problem, which currently costs Australians $37 billion annually.
Currently, unnecessary food waste accounts for close to one billion tonnes of the world's annual production, or 17 per cent, and produces roughly twice as many emissions as all the cars driven in the US and Europe combined.
According to Stop Food Waste Australia's Chief Operating Officer Mark Barthel, Australians are one of the worst offenders per capita.
Some food items can be consumed or sold legally beyond their use-by dates as long as they are not damaged. Credit: FangXiaNuo/Getty Images/iStockphoto.
He explained: 'In Australia, 2.5 million tonnes of food is thrown away from homes yet reducing this could save the average family between $2200 and $2700 a year.'
'Wasting food can cost an individual household up to $2700 per year - that’s one in five bags of groceries which each household is throwing away each week.'
On top of that, household food waste has a significant negative environmental impact, contributing to 6 million of the 17.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions from glasshouse gases each year.
Food rescue non-profit OzHarvest CEO Ronni Kahn added: 'A huge concern is that 70 per cent of that food (dumped in Australia) is perfectly edible, at a time when so many people are struggling to put food on the table – this should not be happening.'
The Fight Food Waste Co-Operative Research Centre (FFWCRC), the world's largest R&D initiative fighting food waste, is now bringing together governments from all over the nation with supermarkets and food non-profits in an effort to reduce the amount of produce thrown away.
Australia's participation in the Fight Food Waste Co-Operative Research Centre (FFWCRC) is also a component of the federal government's effort to reduce the amount of produce that is thrown away in the nation by half by the year 2030.
Many items are discounted after their best-before dates have gone past their use-by dates. Credit: Anthony Boulton/Getty Images/iStockphoto.
Mr Barthel, who also serves as a special advisor to FFWCRC, readily admitted that this goal is 'ambitious'.
'No country has done it yet,' he remarked.
The 'best-before' and 'use-by' dates are the two primary labels currently present on the majority of foods sold in Australia.
Foods marked with a use-by date, such as dairy products or meats, must be consumed before that period for health or safety reasons, according to strict regulations set forth by Food Standards Australia and New Zealand.
After this date, such products cannot be sold lawfully.
Additionally, the organisation said that food with a best-before date can still be consumed after that point as long as it has not been harmed, degraded, or perished.
Similarly, some foods with a best-before date on them may also be sold legally after that time so long as long as they are not damaged or deteriorated. Canning vegetables, cereals, biscuits, sauces, chocolate, sugar, wheat, and frozen meals are a few examples of these items.
However, many of us don't seem to notice this distinction.
Only 51 per cent of home food managers grasped the significance of both food date labels, with 49 per cent incorrectly interpreting one of the labels, according to an alarming 2019 FFWCRC report.
Additionally, 7 per cent of the more than 5200 respondents surveyed for the study were unable to interpret either label.
Consumer research consistently shows that misreading date labels are one of the main reasons why food waste occurs in households, according to Kahn.
'Not everyone understands the difference between use by and best before which often leads to perfectly edible food going in the bin - 2.5 million tonnes from homes every year and over 500,000 tonnes from the retail sector (in Australia),' the food rescue advocate said.
'The most commonly wasted ingredients from our homes are fresh produce like fruit, veg, bagged salad, bread and leftovers.'
'Also meat and dairy items often end up in the bin as people rely on the food labels.'
Food producers and sellers, including major supermarkets, are required by Food Standards Australia New Zealand to label foods with best-by or use-by dates.
The best before labelling system, in contrast, is more about stock turnover for big retailers and producers than it is about assisting customers, according to Grant Miles, owner of the discount grocery chain Cheaper Buy Miles.
He remarked: 'The average consumer pulls something out of the cupboard, sees the best-before date and throws it out.'
Mr Miles stated that for 25 years, his Melbourne-based stores have been selling discounted inventory near or after best-before dates.
He also described the new initiative as 'encouraging people to buy more and it turns over more stock’.
He emphasised the fact that some canned items may be labelled with a best-before date that is more than two years out, even though FSANZ doesn't have to enforce this labelling.
Mr Miles added: 'The date on that can is completely meaningless.'
The grocery store owner also pointed out that the labels had been in use for decades.
'It’s a legacy ... it’s outdated - excuse the pun,' he joked.
The recent decision by UK shops to eliminate such marks on uncut fresh produce is primarily to blame for the renewed discussion surrounding best-before dates.
The UK's reform came in response to a survey by the environmental organisation Waste Resources Action Program (WRAP), which discovered that British families were discarding nearly 2 million tonnes of food annually because the food was 'not eaten in time' and that the date label was noted as a contributing factor in one-third of these situations.
Retailers and policymakers in the US are planning to make similar moves as the UK to encourage consumers to help reduce food waste as part of a campaign called Fight Food Waste.
Some campaigns like Too Good To Go campaign’s Look, Smell, Taste, Don’t Waste video have successfully raised awareness about food waste in the UK. Credit: Twitter.
The executive director at ReFED, Dana Gunders, claims that the level of support for standardising the language on date labels has incrementally grown, especially over the past few months.
However, there is a large number of consumers who remain completely oblivious to the fact that most of these dates have no scientific basis and are largely arbitrary.
Richard Lipsit, the owner of a grocery store chain in California specialising in discounted food, believes that 'sell-by', 'best-by', and 'expiration' labels don't necessarily mean that the food is off after the date has been reached.
For example, he claims that whole milk can still be safely consumed up to a week after its 'use-by' date.
Gunders went on to say that our bodies are much more adaptive than we give them credit for. 'Our bodies are very well equipped to recognise the signs of decay when food is past its edible point,' she said.
'I believe that we’ve lost trust in our senses and instead, we’ve replaced it with trust in these dates.'
Last year, a major British supermarket, Morrisons, even eliminated 'use-by' dates from most of their store-brand milk jugs, replacing them with a 'best-before' label.
'Most people believe that if it says “sell by,” “best by” or “expiration”, you can’t eat any of them,' said Richard Lipsit, who owns a supermarket in California. 'But that’s not actually accurate.'
'In fact, the only time you should actually be wary of eating food past the “sell by” date is if it’s raw chicken, eggs, or meat,' he went on to say. Many other packaged foods can be eaten for years after the 'best-before' date..
'Our bodies are very well equipped to recognise the signs of decay when food is past its edible point,' Gunders said. 'We’ve lost trust in those senses, and we’ve replaced it with trust in these dates.'
There are attempts to intentionally urge consumers to re-engage their senses in the UK, where big supermarket Morrisons even removed ‘use-by’ dates from the majority of store-brand milk and replaced them with a ‘best-before’ label.
The UK's Too Good To Go campaign, which uses new labels to encourage customers to use their senses when deciding whether or not to toss a food item with a best before date, is presently promoting the Look, Smell, Taste, Don't Waste awareness campaign.
OzHarvest's Kahn claims she is open to the discussion in Australia, especially if it serves to increase awareness.
The food advocate said: 'Australia should be watching the results from the UK.'
'Extending food labelling dates (safely) is highlighted as one of the industry-led interventions in the National Food Waste strategy, which could see significant results across retail, hospitality, institutions and household food waste.'
The Australian environment ministers are currently considering a national awareness campaign that would be comparable to the one that eventually forced major UK supermarket retailers to abandon best-before labelling policies for whole food.
While Australia's best-before date dilemma is one of the items being examined, Barthel claims that the current focus is on improving people's behaviour.
He noted: 'It’s being actively considered.'
'It seems to be working in other places ... (but) we need to make sure industry is not opposed and food remains safe to eat.'
'In my personal view, removing it from whole produce is a good thing to do.'
He also cited a predictive model, which suggested that the nation's food waste may be reduced by 250,000 tonnes annually.
The two labels in the Australian New Zealand Food Safety Code, according to FSANZ, will not be reviewed at this time. For the time being, major stores are still wary of such actions.
The group said: 'FSANZ is not currently reviewing the date marking requirements in Standard 1.2.5 (of the code). Any proposal to change the standard would need to be considered by the Food Ministers’ Meeting.'
Woolworths confirmed that the company is aware that its UK counterparts have done similar initiatives as the one being pushed in the country.
'While we note the changes made by retailers in the UK, discussions regarding this in Australia are still in their infancy and need additional engagement with all of industry and governments,' a spokesperson said.
Best-before dates may not be going away anytime soon in Australia, but there is still work that can be done right now.
Expanding successful initiatives — like the Love Food, Hate Waste push, which is already being used in NSW, Queensland, and ACT — across the country could shift consumer behaviour, Barthel noted.
He added: 'The challenge is about education and awareness.'
'When households are made aware of the level of food waste they generate, our research shows that over three-quarters of them will want to take action - especially right now with the cost of living crisis.'
It will take a year or two for the campaign, according to Barthel, who cited the UK's journey towards food awareness. Even though nobody wants to waste food that they have paid for, most people nonetheless do it unconsciously.
He explained: 'Raising awareness helps us become more conscious of our behaviour ... then it takes a reasonable period of time to normalise these new behaviours that help us reduce food waste and save money.'
However, he also noted that it was still 'early to say' whether Australia would decide to eliminate the best-before date on uncut fresh fruit and vegetables.
Kahn speculated that bringing attention to the problem may be the best way to determine how eager the public is for change.
She said: 'Raising awareness of the issue and educating consumers is key to influencing change at a national level and any changes to food labels would need to be supported by consumer education.'
'Sadly we can’t rescue food from people’s homes, but we can inspire them to stop wasting it in the first place.'
OzHarvest CEO Ronni Kahn said that there’s hope for Australia to raise awareness of food waste. Credit: Brendan Esposito/AAP.
Checking food labels has been a routine part of our grocery shopping for years. It helps us to know what we're buying and to make sure that we're getting the best possible product for our money.
However, with the new initiative being pushed, it seems like we need to revisit our shopping habits.
So, members, what do you think about this? Does it make sense for the government to revise food labels for the sake of curbing food waste, or does it not make a difference? Let us know in the comments!
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