The expiration dates on your favorite foods are about to get a major makeover
Say goodbye to wasting food—and money
Say goodbye to wasting food—and money
Say goodbye to wasting food—and money
Americans throw out over of the food we buy according to the NRDC, meaning every family in the U.S. is putting $1,500 worth of food in the trash each year. The , which includes representatives from the world's biggest food and retail companies, believes that one of the major reasons for all that wasted food (and money!) is confusing expiration date labeling—and they're doing something about it.
The CEOs of 50 major food brands, including Walmart, Nestlé, Kellogg, PepsiCo, and Campbell Soup Company, recently voted unanimously to standardize all food labels by 2020 in an effort to make it easier for consumers to understand exactly when their food is unsafe to eat. Instead of being left to decipher phrases like "Sell by," "Best before," "Display until," or "Use by," labels will soon simply say "Use by" to reference a specific expiration date, or "Best if used by" to indicate food quality.
Around the world, an estimated is wasted each year, which has a huge impact on the environmental health of our planet. Food waste contributes to 8 percent of annual greenhouse gases, according to a . To put that in perspective, if food waste were a country, it would be the third largest greenhouse gas emitter after China and the U.S. Experts estimate that confusion over expiration dates on products cost families in the United States alone.
"Standardizing food date labels is a simple and effective way to reduce the amount of edible food thrown out by households, saving them money and reducing their environmental footprint," the Consumer Goods Forum's board members said in a . The companies are also putting together a plan to educate consumers about food waste and labeling, in the hopes of preventing people from throwing out food that is perfectly fine to eat.
To learn more about what you can do to save money and our planet, here are .
(h/t )