Arbiters of Waste: Date Labels, the Consumer and Knowing Good, Safe Food

Abstract

The importance of date labelling in informing both retailers and consumers how long a food will remain edible, safe and of sufficient quality makes it a prime site for the identification of, and intervention in, food waste. This paper examines the historical and spatial evolution of the date labelling system in the UK. The paper shows how reforms to date marking have occurred in response to shifting concerns about food quality, safety and latterly waste. It distinguishes four periods during which labels moved from an internal stock control mechanism to a consumer protection mechanism, a food safety device and recently emerged as a key element in the fight against food waste. Contributing to recent sociological studies of food labelling, the paper charts changing understandings of the role of the label in mediating between consumers, the food industry and regulators. It shows how regulatory objects such as date labels materialize societal concerns about food and situates contemporary efforts to reform date labelling in relation to prior articulations of consumer, government and industry interests.

Food waste matters - A systematic review of household food waste practices and their policy implications

“…Date-labelling on packages is a key instrument of food policy, situated between production, retailing and consumption (Milne, 2012). As already indicated in Section 3, a lack of knowledge Table 3 Underlying reasons for food waste in households and possible prevention measures.…”

Consumer-Related Food Waste: Causes and Potential for Action

“…Quested's point about the generational difference also underlines the importance of taking into account how historical developments have shaped today's food wastage behavior in the society overall. Changes evolving over time can also be highlighted for the concrete example of date labelling [59,60]. In sum, the macro-environmental context and developments should be taken into account when analyzing consumer-related food waste.…”

Food Waste Drivers in Europe, from Identification to Possible Interventions

“…When product freshness cannot be visually detected, as for packed food, date labelling becomes the main reference for selection and the majority of consumers tend to avoid the purchase of food close to the best-before and use-by dates [11]. This behaviour has been identified as a FW driver, whose effects may be amplified by consumer misunderstanding with respect to the real significance of date marks [1,4,58,83,85,136,137,151,[160][161][162][163].…”