FDA Advocates Ways to Reduce Food Waste
[Thursday, May 30, 2019]

Americans throw away about 40% of purchase food every year for non-quality related reasons. Basically, food good enough for human consumption is wasted away due to inaccurate or misleading labeling practices in the food industry. This week FDA announced that it strongly recommends all food to contain the unambiguous label of “Best if Used By” indicating that after that date, the food is necessarily spoilt or unfit for consumption but in the manufacturer’s opinion may have some quality defects. Most food is not formally tested for expiration based on microbial growth or any other objective measures of quality. Rather expiration dates are mostly picked arbitrarily based on anecdotal data or past experiences. USDA had announced a similar concern about two and a half years ago. Now that FDA is adding its voice to efforts to reduce food waste, one would expect the food industry to pay more heed. However, one of the biggest reason for food waste is consumer habits. Consumers have been trained for decades to pay attention to the food expiration dates. It is hard to expect consumers to simply ignore the dates on their food packages. The general adage is that consumers trust the label more than their instincts. While standardization of the label should help, there is a need for extensive campaigns to educate consumers about ways to reduce food waste and have smart practices for food usage. Without consumer wholehearted participation, these efforts by the FDA, USDA and other stakeholders will not go very far.