Expiry Dates In The Grocery Industry

Let’s say you buy some yogurt and keep it in the fridge. Sometime later you want to eat it, but you see that it expired the previous day. Then you throw it away and think of it as money down the drain. Now think about the quantity of the product that would expire the same day and how much of it goes to waste. I first started to think about this problem when I was working at a grocery store last summer. I have seen the amount of waste the store produced on a daily basis and was appalled. This made me think about how people around the globe find it difficult to have 2 square meals a day, while we are unnecessarily trashing food which is still edible. From food to skin care, all products have an expiration date on them and are written in different ways. Commonly, the date is given as ‘Best Before’ or ‘Use By’ or ‘Sell By’ A popular misconception about expiry dates is the wrong interpretation of the different ways these dates are presented and the judgement of a product’s safety based on these dates. These different ways the expiry date is presented tends to confuse the consumer. Usually, ‘Best Before’ tells us that the product would be at its peak of freshness, ‘Use By’ is generally used on tell us the item is perishable and is definitely safe before the date. A ‘Sell by’ date is intended to be a message from the food manufacturer to the retailer so the store knows how long to display an item. It indicates that the product will still have significant shelf life once it reaches a consumer's home. Most consumers don’t understand this and trash the product even when it is still fresh. Especially in America, the expiry dates are really complicated. Since the FDA doesn’t control expiry dates, there are state laws for them. The manufacturer determines the date based on when they think their products will go bad. Due to this, consumers often throw away perfectly healthy food. In a video called “EXPIRED? Food waste in America,” a group of students of the Harvard food law and policy (FLPC) clinic and racing horse productions travel to Montana where there is a strict expiration date law on dairy product. All dairy products should have a ‘Sell by’ date on them and shouldn’t be stocked on the shelves after that date. This law has been effective since the 1980s and has cause a lot of wastage of dairy that is still fresh. To cover the cost of the wasted milk, it costs around 40% more than the national average. Due to this magnitude of wastage, people are beginning to not afford milk. We can see how such laws impact the environment as well as the economy. Similarly, other states have different laws on expiration dates on products as well. The fact is that the expiry dates don’t necessarily judge the safety of the food and can’t be considered to be accurate most of the time. According to the scientist Dr. Ted Labuza of the University of Minnesota, “expiry dates on most products are entirely based on quality and optimum freshness rather than safety” (Labuza, expired). The method used to produce this date is based in the laziest storage conditions. There are many factors that affect the deterioration of the product, such …show more content…
The average American usually throws away $1000 a year due to food wastage. With the world’s population growing every day and poverty concerns in the world, there is no scope to waste food. The food discarded by stores alone could feed half the poor population. Some may argue that the expiry dates are the only way to be sure that what they are eating is safe; I don’t disagree with that. Expiry dates are a good reference to make sure that what you are eating is healthy, but it isn’t the only determining factor. Most products, with good storage, would last sometime past the expiry date and products which are not in an optimal environment might get spoiled before the date. Expiry dates are only an estimation as to when a product might go bad. Deterioration begins the moment the product has been produced. The rate of deterioration is based on numerous