A majority of Canadians are against eliminating “best before” dates on food packaging in a push to reduce food waste, according to a joint report from the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University and the Angus Reid Institute, released on Thursday. 30 per cent of Canadians say they oppose it, and even more – 32 per cent – say they are strongly opposed. Although 27 percent said they would support or strongly support removing these date tags. “You can use milk a few days past the best-by date, it’s not tragic,” Cindy Hutchinson told CBC News as she left a farmer’s market in Winnipeg. For another market-goer named Shirley, it was a resounding no: “I like fresh stuff,” she said. Consumers are influenced by date labeling, the report says, noting that 25 percent of the population relies on “best before” dates as an indicator of food safety. But that may well contribute to food waste, of which Canada already produces plenty. Excluding households, the Canadian food industry wastes 8.79 million tonnes of potentially edible food each year, according to a 2022 report by Value Chain Management International (VCMI), a food waste management company in Oakville, Ont. Martin Guth, CEO of VCMI, said that while he is not surprised that Canadians are opposed to removing “best before” labels, it contributes to the problem of food loss and waste in Canada, both at the retail level among consumers and throughout the supply chain. “We’re used to it as a population,” he said. “We’re used to, when we pick up a product from a store or from a pantry, one of the first things we often do is look at the date. “Dating leads to behavior…if it’s in a food package.” In an email, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency told CBC News that, in response to consumer needs and consultation, it “proposed changes to various aspects of food labelling, including a clearer and more legible best-before date.” There is an important distinction between safety and quality when it comes to the label date, said Maria Corradini, associate professor of food science and Arrell Chair in Food Quality at the University of Guelph. “When you talk about quality, safety is one of the components of quality. You can’t say it’s a high-quality product if it’s not safe,” he said. “But you can have a safe product that doesn’t have good quality.”
Most dates for quality, freshness
Only a few foods have actual expiration dates that determine if they are safe to eat. among them are infant formulas and liquid food products. While “best before” dates are about quality, Gooch notes that “use by” dates have to do with food safety, “especially if they’re dietary supplements for immunocompromised people.” Otherwise, most food products are labeled with “best before,” “sell by,” or “packaged by” dates that indicate the quality and freshness of the provisions. The further away from these dates, the lower quality the food becomes — especially in the case of perishables such as produce and dairy. But dates don’t indicate a product is dangerous or unsafe, according to Corradini. “Completely eliminating any kind of appointment will deprive the consumer of a source of information,” he said. “I think some sort of dating should be included in the product or some kind of cue should be built in for the consumer instead of the static benchmarks we have right now.” Several European grocers — Tesco, Waitrose, Marks & Spencer, Morrisons and, most recently, Asda — are experimenting with new anti-food waste initiatives, ditching “best before” and “sell by” labels on some of their products. The initiative targets frequently wasted items such as milk, apples and potatoes. “I’m not sure this kind of policy is successful,” Corradini said. Dynamic, sensory-focused labels — which tell the consumer when a product has gone bad by describing the taste or smell — will give a more accurate picture of whether or not a food has gone bad, he said. A return to Julian dating, where a product is stamped with the date it was made or packaged, could be an effective solution to food waste, according to Gooch. “This allows manufacturers, retailers, businesses throughout the chain to manage inventory, move product – first in, first out – using products that need to be used, selling products that need to be sold.” But that doesn’t drive consumer behavior, he said. In fact, some parts of the food industry and other industries that use similar date markings consciously benefit from “best before” dates. “One of the things we need to do is better communicate what ‘best before’ dates mean.
