As awareness grows about food waste, best before labels

As awareness grows about the problem of food waste, a culprit is drawing scrutiny: best before labels.

The labels have been used by manufacturers for decades to estimate peak freshness. Unlike the use of labels which are found on perishable foods like meat and dairy, labels have nothing to do with safety and may encourage consumers to throw away food that is perfectly fine to eat.

They read these dates and then they assume that it is bad, they can't eat it and they toss it, when these dates don't mean that they are not edible or that they are not still healthy or tasty, said Patty Apple, a manager at Food Shift, a non-profit that collects and uses expired or imperfect foods in Alameda, California.

Major UK chains like Waitrose, Sainsbury's and Marks Spencer recently removed best before labels from prepackaged fruit and vegetables to address the problem. The European Union is expected to make changes to its labeling laws by the end of the year, and it is considering abolishing best before labels altogether.

There is no similar push to scrap best before labels in the United States. There is growing momentum to standardise the language on date labels to educate buyers about food waste, including a push from big grocers and food companies and bipartisan legislation in Congress.