Dating dilemma: date labels could be causing food waste

Ohio State University researchers using eye-tracking technology found that 50% of study participants declared their intent to throw away milk based on the date stamped on the container — without even looking at the wording.

Food is wasted throughout the production process, but most of it happens at the consumer level. Misinterpretation of the date labels on foods is a common factor that can lead to wastage at this level.

The researchers chose milk for the study because it is widely consumed and represents about 12% of all food wasted by US consumers.

Each participant saw one of three phrasing options: ‘Sell by’, ‘Best if used by’ or ‘Use by’ a given date, as well as containers with no label at all.

“We asked them if they intended to discard it, and if they said yes, it didn’t matter which phrase was there,” said senior study author Brian Roe, professor of agricultural, environment and development economics at The Ohio State University.

“As soon as we changed the printed date, that was a huge mover of whether or not they would discard or not. So we documented both where their eyes were and what they said was going to happen. And in both cases, it’s all about the date, and the phrase is second fiddle.”

Some suggested solutions to this date labelling issue have been to establish best practice guidelines for setting dates and location of the label. Also phrasing could be improved to include words like ‘freeze before’ or even removing ‘best before’ labels altogether for non-perishable foods for which safety is not a concern.

According to Roe, US policymakers and industry leaders are now working towards settling on a universal two-phrase system — one when quality, but not safety, is the concern, and a second phrase for items where safety may be a concern. However, they haven’t released any standard phrases yet.

“If you’re going to have an education campaign, it helps to have a set of phrases out there that people can cling to — but in the end, so few actually look at the phrase. They look at the date,” Roe said.

Data from eye-tracking technology showed that overall, participants spent more time fixing their eyes on the date compared to the phrase, looked at the date more frequently and laid their eyes on the date 44% faster than on the phrase.

“The date signifies a point after which you can expect quality to degrade. If you can get firms to push that date further out, then people are going to be willing to use the milk, or whatever it is, for a few more days, and waste a lot less food,” Roe said.

Though the quality of the milk affected participants’ intent to throw it away — with souring milk having about a third higher discard probability than fresher milk — the quality factor did not influence what participants spent the most time looking at on the label.

“The milk was intentionally made to smell a bit sour, and it didn’t really fundamentally change the fact that people really focus on the date,” Roe said.

The finding aligned with previous studies led by Roe in which the intention to throw away food was driven by the label date and not the phrase.

“For policy reasons, it’s still important to narrow the phrases down to two choices. But that’s only the beginning — there needs to be a broader conversation about pushing those date horizons back to help minimise food waste,” Roe concluded.

The study was published recently in the journal Waste Management.

Image credit: iStock.com/victorass88