cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/3142575
this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2024
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It's why expiration dates must be updated to reflect real expiration dates, not "best by". We toss large amounts of food because of that. Probably large amounts of restaurant waste, too.
I think it's more of the expiration date should be more explicitly a suggestion and a limit for the retailers. People think after the best by date it's no longer good, when in reality it literally means what's written: better before, not bad after. I'd say it's a wording thing first, because using an actual expiration date is impossible, and would open food producer to petty lawsuits about the product being not good 1 day before the estimated date
My grocery started a campaign where the "guarantee your milk has at least 10 days," so they're discarding or diverting milk not just on the 'best by' date, but 10 days before that. All I can hope is that it's getting diverted to lower-cost stores or food banks and not actually getting thrown out, because that's ridiculous.