Skip to footer

New bill tries to dispel consumer confusion about food labels

A new bill aims to curtail food waste and dispel consumer confusion by clearly differentiating between labels for foods which have reached peak quality and labels for foods which have become unsafe to consume.

|
Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters/File
Vegetables pulled from waste bins of an organic supermarket are shown in Berlin in January 2013.

A national survey, conducted by the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic, found that 84 percent of consumers throw away food that is close to or past the date displayed on the label, and this disposal is often unnecessary. Currently, food date labeling is not federally regulated in the United States.

The Food Date Labeling Act, which was announced on May 18 by U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-ME), seeks to curtail food waste and dispel consumer confusion by clearly differentiating between labels for foods which have reached peak quality and labels for foods which have become unsafe to consume.“If we reduce food waste by just 15 percent, we would be able to adequately feed 25 million hungry Americans,” says Pingree. 

The bill develops a nationwide standard and regulatory framework for date labeling, using labeling terminology that is understandable and transparent for consumers. The proposed legislation also enables retailers to sell or donate food that has passed its quality date. Often, the dates on food labels do not accurately reflect the actual safety threshold of the food and can be misleading to consumers.

“Items at the grocery store are stamped with a jumble of arbitrary food date labels that are not based on safety or science. This dizzying patchwork confuses consumers, results in food waste, and prevents good food from being donated to those who need it most,” Blumenthal explains.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that 133 billion pounds of food are wasted at the retail and consumer levels of the supply chain. The Food Date Labeling Act draws inspiration and recommendations from research conducted by the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic, the Food Date Labeling Working Group, the National Consumers League, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future.

Emma is pursuing a master's degree in Agroecology at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. Her thesis research investigates the conceptual relationship between local food policy councils and agroecology social movements.

This story originally appeared on Food Tank.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to New bill tries to dispel consumer confusion about food labels
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/The-Bite/2016/0702/New-bill-tries-to-dispel-consumer-confusion-about-food-labels
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe