“A lot of wastage is because people don’t understand the best-before dates,” Zeegers notes. For example, there is an important difference between the ‘use by’ date (best before) and the ‘best before’ date (best before). ‘Usable until’ is stated on, for example, meat and fish, according to Zeegers, because that is a safety indicator. If you eat a fresh product afterwards, it poses a risk to your health.
‘Tht’ can be found on non-perishable products such as chips, pasta or rice. That is only a guarantee of quality, explains Zeegers. “The producer thus says: until that date my chips taste exactly as they should be. But if they are past the date, it is not immediately a health hazard, it is an indication of taste.” She thinks that abolishing that designation will lead to less waste.
Researcher Toine Timmermans of Wageningen University, however, is not in favor of abolishing the best-before date. “If you remove these, consumers will no longer have any tools to know when they can no longer eat something,” noted Timmermans, who is also director of the Foundation Together Against Food Waste. “Without such a handle, some people throw products away faster, research shows.” Timmermans believes that there should be much more clarity about the various best before dates. With the best before date you can just use your nose, but many people don’t know that.