FSA tackles date marking issues

The aims of the meeting are to discuss the challenges and explore if, and how, FSA guidance on ‘use by’ and ‘best before’ dates could be reviewed to reduce unnecessary waste without compromising food safety.

The British Retail Consortium, which has been working with the FSA and with the Waste Resources Action Programme (WRAP) on educating consumers about food storage and disposal, is attending the meeting.

Food policy director Andrew Opie said: “Research from WRAP has found that about half of the food we throw away could have been eaten, so there is definitely more that could be done on consumer education.

“But we would also like more clarity on which foods should have use by dates and which should have best before dates, as currently there is a lot of inconsistency. Some firms supplying certain hard cheeses for example, are still using use by dates, whereas others have switched to best before.”​

He added: “The FSA guidance on this is useful but it is too vague. We need to pin things down. One way is for sector-specific groups within industry to list exactly which products should have use by dates and which should have best before dates.”​

Consumers are throwing away 'perfectly good food'​

The Provision Trade Federation (PTF) will also be attending the meeting. There were several strands to the debate, however, said PTF director general Clare Cheney. “One issue is clarifying which foods require use by dates as opposed to best before dates. This would be useful for enforcement purposes apart from anything else as there is not a great deal of consistency.​

“There’s also a margin for error typically built into use by dates because manufacturers assume consumers won’t store the product properly. That means that people who are storing them correctly might be throwing them away when they are in fact still safe to eat.”​

The bigger issue however, was consumer understanding, she suggested. “I don’t think many consumers realise the difference between use by and best before. A lot of people throw away food that is perfectly good to eat because it has passed its best before date.”​

It is a criminal offence to sell or display food past its ‘use by’ date. It is meant to be used on prepacked foods which, from the microbiological point of view, are highly perishable and therefore likely after a short period to constitute an immediate danger to human health.

What the labels mean​

‘Best before’ dates, by contrast, are an indication of quality and are applied to foods with a longer shelf life or those unlikely to be a health risk.

‘Sell by’ and ‘display by’ dates are for the benefit of retailers and caterers to assist with stock control, but have no legal standing.

Under UK Food Labelling Regulations (1996), all pre-packaged foods must have a ‘use by’ date or a ‘best before’ date plus detail of relevant storage conditions that need to be observed.