Companies commit to simplify food date labels by 2020
Consumers around the world navigate a range of date labels on food products, and the resulting confusion costs families up to $29 billion annually in the United States alone.
Consumers around the world navigate a range of date labels on food products, and the resulting confusion costs families up to $29 billion annually in the United States alone. The Consumer Goods Forum (CGF)—a network of 400 consumer goods companies across 70 countries—along with Champions 12.3 has approved a Call to Action to standardize food date labels worldwide by 2020.
The CGF board of directors unanimously adopted the Call to Action to simplify date labels. CGF includes companies like Tesco, Kellogg, Walmart, Campbell Soup, Bimbo, Pick n Pay, Nestlé, Carrefour, and Unilever. The Call to Action says retailers and food producers should take three important steps to simplify date labels and reduce food waste by 2020:
- Use only one label at a time.
- Choose one of two labels: one expiration date for perishable items (e.g., “use by”) and one food quality indicator for nonperishable items (e.g., “best if used by”). The exact wording will be tailored to regional context.
- Provide consumer education to better understand what date labels mean.
The announcement expands national efforts to streamline date labels in the United States, United Kingdom, and Japan to the rest of the world. In addition to the labels on products, the Call to Action recommends companies partner with nonprofit organizations and government agencies to educate consumers about how to interpret date labels. Education efforts could include in-store displays, web materials, and public service announcements. Many consumers don’t know, for example, that many products are still safe to eat past the “best if used by” date.
“Simplifying food date labels is an important step forward in preventing food waste and will help end the confusion related to ‘sell by’ dates,” said Maria Fernanda Mejia, senior vice president of Kellogg and president of Kellogg Latin America. “Kellogg is an enthusiastic supporter of improved and harmonized food labeling standards to help educate and empower consumers to prevent food waste, save their families money, and conserve resources to protect our planet.”