UNDERSTANDING FOOD LABELLING

The date or label marking on food packaging is one of the factors that significantly influences consumers’ decision to keep or discard food. There’s a common misconception that the “best before” date and the “use-by” date on food products mean the same thing; confusion over date labelling accounts for an estimated 20 percent of consumer food waste. Understanding the difference between these two terms will help you reduce food waste: sometimes food is still safe to eat after the “best before” date, whereas the “use-by” date informs you when it’s no longer safe to eat.

The following date labels are used: use by/expiry dates, best if used by/best before dates, and sell by dates. Understanding their meaning will help consumers develop a better purchasing habit and reduce household food waste.

Food labels highlighting the nutitional composition of food are very important for food producers and businesses to provide insight on the nutrient composition of food as well as helping households in making decision on food purchase and food consumption. This information is vital to meeting total daily intake of macro an micro nutrients, avoiding unhealthy food additives and managing allergies. 

#WorldFoodDay #PlanToSave #GoodFood4All #WorldFoodTracker

Content for further reading can be found below:

https://www.fao.org/food-labelling/en/ 

https://wrap.org.uk/taking-action/food-drink/actions/date-labelling 

https://intellidigest.com/food-production/food-labeling/ 

https://www.bda.uk.com/resource/food-labelling-nutrition-information.html 

https://www.food.gov.uk/business-guidance/packaging-and-labelling 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8308906/ 

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/food-labelling-giving-food-information-to-consumers

https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/15/17/3837