Dive Brief:
Consumers are confused by what Use By and Best If Used By labels mean on their food, according to a study published this month in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior. In an online study involving 2,607 U.S. adults, only 64% could correctly explain what the Best If Used By label meant. Just 44.8% were able to describe what the Use By label meant.
Giving consumers a brief explainer of what each label meant increased the level of understanding. Post-explanation, 82% could correctly articulate what a Best If Used By label meant, and 82.4% properly explained what Use By meant.
Date labeling is not federally standardized and has historically been more of a source of confusion than information about whether food is good to eat or should be thrown away.
A trove of more than 11,000 photographs of migrant agricultural workers in the Yakima Valley in the 1960s and 1970s spent decades in a basement at Washington State University, but a recent effort to digitize the collection has breathed new life into the photos and the stories they tell. More Headlines
Tonnes of toxic waste collected from British municipal dumps is being sent illegally to Africa in flagrant breach of this country’s obligation to ensure its rapidly growing mountain of defunct televisions, computers and gadgets are disposed of safely.
Hundreds of thousands of discarded items, which under British law must be dismantled or recycled by specialist contractors, are being packaged into cargo containers and shipped to countries such as Nigeria and Ghana, where they are stripped of their raw metals by young men and children working on poisoned waste dumps.
In a joint investigation by
The Independent, Sky News, and Greenpeace, a television that had been broken beyond repair was tracked to an electronics market in Lagos, Nigeria, after being left at a civic amenity site in Basingstoke run by Hampshire Country Council. Under environmental protection laws It was classified as hazardous waste and should never have left the UK.
Store-bought raw meats
These dates are important because they are guidelines for after you’ve bought items and stored them away. Take note of “Best By” dates so you can rotate items in your stockpile to prevent spoilage.
Below is more information about other common terms and dates that are often stamped on food products:
Guaranteed Fresh – Refers to the date when it’s best to use up a product for maximum freshness.
Sell-By – This date is for the store. It tells them how long to display the product for sale. Used for inventory management, the sell-by date isn’t a safety date.
Food Policy as Climate Policy: How Waste Reduction Can Contribute to a Greener Tomorrow
Food Policy as Climate Policy: How Waste Reduction Can Contribute to a Greener Tomorrow
April 27, 2021
Food waste is among the most significant – and overlooked – contributors to climate change today, accounting for about eight percent of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. Indeed, if it were its own country, food waste would have the third largest carbon footprint on the planet, outweighing even that of the mass-polluting airline industry. In the United States, 30 to 40 percent of all food is wasted. When uneaten food is sent to landfills, it produces methane, an environmentally devastating greenhouse gas that is 84 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. Food waste is a critical area for reform in the fight against climate change, and one that could simultaneously help to alleviate the food insecurity that plagues upwards of 35 million Americans. In order to satisfy the country’s long