I’m talking about the expiration dates that label our food, of course.  Do they mean the food is good and safe to eat until that date, fresh until that date, saleable until that date?  Well, according to the The Harvard Food Law Policy Clinic and the National Resources Defense Council who published a report on food expiration dates called The Dating Game, the answer is yes.  Meaning, that there is no federal regulation of the dating on food (except baby formula) but each state has it’s own standards and some states don’t require dating on food at all.  So it’s really hard to know.

I have a friend who is very neat and organized.  Each week she goes through her refrigerator and tosses out anything with a passed due expiration date.  I wonder how much of that food is actually still good to eat?  How many families do the same thing?  How many families could avoid hunger if we were able to use more and throw out less?

The confusion over the safety of foods because of inconsistent and difficult to understand dating is a contributing factor to the rise in food waste in the United States.  So how do we decipher these dates so that we are not throwing out valuable food sources unnecessarily and still keeping ourselves safe?  The USDA‘s website indicates the following descriptions of dates to help sort this out.

Types of Dates

• A “Sell-By” date tells the store how long to display the product for sale. You should buy the product before the date expires.
• A “Best if Used By (or Before)” date is recommended for best flavor or quality. It is not a purchase or safety date.
• A “Use-By” date is the last date recommended for the use of the product while at peak quality. The date has been determined by the manufacturer of the product.
• “Closed or coded dates” are packing numbers for use by the manufacturer.

But honestly, this is still confusing to me.  None of these dates are particularly definitive about the safety of the food beyond the date mentioned.  The USDA also includes a chart of common meats and eggs and the recommended storage times and places.  Seems like these might be useful on the packaging?

The Harvard FLPC and the NRDC, the authors of The Dating Game came up with the below recommendations that seem both reasonable and informative to the consumer.

• Making “sell by” dates invisible to consumers, as they indicate business-to-business labeling information and are mistakenly interpreted as safety dates;
• Establishing a more uniform, easily understandable date label system that communicates clearly with consumers by 1) using consistent, unambiguous language; 2) clearly differentiating between safety- and quality-based dates; 3) predictably locating the date on package; 4) employing more transparent methods for selecting dates; and other changes to improve coherency;
• Increasing the use of safe handling instructions and “smart labels” that use technology to provide additional information on the product’s safety.

They published these findings in 2013.  I am hoping that in another three years we aren’t still having the same conversation.