By SNCW board member Lee Alley
The United Nations cites research that shows about a third of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions is linked to food. Our EPA reports that an estimated 58 percent of [methane emissions, the most powerful common greenhouse gas] are from landfilled food waste. The UN further reports that if food waste were a country, it would be the third-largest emitting country in the world. The World Wildlife Fund claims that, in the U.S., lost or wasted food generates the equivalent of 32.6 million cars’ worth of greenhouse gas emissions.
Clearly, food, the perception of its expiration, and its inappropriate disposal are very substantial factors of climate change.
I once worked for a small town food bank in Washington state. Each week we drove the food bank’s large truck to collect several tons of "expired" food (we weighed every donation) from the town’s grocery stores. Our food bank volunteers would then sort incoming foods based on "expiration status" and either distribute it to families, or donate it to farmers for cattle feed, or place it in the trash bin (for inadvertent conversion to methane, the worst greenhouse gas).
The grocery stores made their expiry status decisions based on factors such as legal compliance, inventory supply chain, and marketability. Then my food bank made our expiry status decisions based on factors such as legal compliance, perceived food quality, condition of packaging (and cattle appetite).
Adding even further complexity to the food waste stream is that food labeling can include any one of many different dates, if any, printed on food packaging:
Expiration Date
Sell-by Date or Pull Date
Pack Date
Use-by Date or Quality Date
But those dates are largely self-determined by each food producer’s judgment and/or merchandising goals. Any legal compliance guardrails about food spoilage safety printed by the producer on their packaging are of limited help. Our USDA reports that:
“Except for infant formula, there is no federal requirement that food be labeled with a
date. Although dating of some foods is required by more than 20 states, there are areas
of the country where much of the food supply has some type of open date and other
areas where almost no food is dated.”
The Washington State Department of Agriculture describes a complex of regulations for perishable food expiration dating and labeling, including:
“Perishable packaged food products with a projected shelf life of thirty days or less
must state the pull date on the package label… Also, when products require
refrigeration either before or after opening, such information must be on the label.”
So, what is a parent to do when food items reach their “_____ Date?” Feed it to the kids today? Feed it to them soon, if it appears OK? Feed it to the family’s chickens? Compost it, but by which composting method?
There are numerous food shelf life guides posted online, including this Carnegie Mellon University food bank shelf life guide and this Food Bank Products Shelf Life Guide by eastern Washington State's Second Harvest.
For instance, did you know that the Pack Date doesn’t tell you anything at all about the expiration of a product? And some dairy and produce are still of high quality beyond their Sell-by Date if they’ve been handled properly? Or shelf-stable food like cereal or crackers are also still fully edible beyond their Use-by Date, and it’s just when their quality slowly lessens? Not to discount the discomfort of food poisoning, however, spoiled foods may smell or look bad, but rarely make people sick.
Besides our schools teaching math and reading fundamentals, digital and financial literacy, perhaps we should ask them to add food waste literacy to the curriculum.
So, when we come to a food spoilage decision point at the store, in the pantry, or cleaning out the fridge, we must have the knowledge to balance factors of true food costs, family health, and climate change impacts. Fortunately, our own Washington State Department of Ecology has prepared an important website to give us much of that knowledge, to help us create less food waste, stay healthier, and keep the Earth a healthy place for us to live.
Image from the Use Food Well website depicting how food waste includes other costs.
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