Why the USA Food System and Expiration Date Myths Turn 41% of Food into Waste. Your Food is Not Expired. End Food Waste

Not all types of food in the United States end up in the fridge, freezer, or pantry. Nor are they consumed by Americans. A good number land in bins and landfills as food waste.

The the Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimated that as much as of the country’s total food supply were wasted. This number was quoted over 10 years ago. Since then, the population has increased, and consumer behavior has changed. There’s a good chance that this percentage has already risen. Help end food waste.

While the problem of food waste in the US is both severe and wide-ranging, the reasons why this is happening are not as simple as others make it appear. Many factors contribute to it, including consumer confusion.

What Causes Food Waste?

Food waste can already be considered a travesty to humanity especially since food insecurity is a growing global problem. More than 35 million Americans are hungry. But why does it seem uncontrollable and unsolvable? It’s because many factors are influencing it.

1. Mumbo-Jumbo of Definitions

Anybody who has ever shopped for groceries has already come across terms like “best-by date,” “sell-by date,” and “use-by date.” Although they may sound alike, they don’t mean the same thing. In fact, they don’t even indicate the date of safety, contrary to what most people think.

To understand this point, it pays to discuss more food product dating. Unless the product is infant formula, no federal agency is mandating food manufacturers and processing companies to add any date in their products.

However, a vast majority do probably because consumers are already used to seeing the date and thus expect products to display it. Food brands also have two options on how to write these dates:

• Open dating, wherein the label includes a date range in which the quality of the product is the best. This is often used in fresh produce, such as meat, as well as products like bread.
• Closed dating, which is a series of letters and numbers that identify the production date and time. It is often used by manufacturers to track their products.

The terms mentioned above are related to open dating. But neither open nor closed dating talks about safety, so what do they stand for?

• A sell-by date isn’t intended for consumers. Instead, it is for retailers to help them determine how long they should keep the product on display or inventory.
• A best-by or before date, which is probably the most common product date, indicates the period when the product is at its best quality.
• A use-by date refers to the last date in which the product could be at its peak quality.
• A freeze-by date defines how long the product should remain frozen to maintain its quality

In other words, none of the dates tell how long or when the food will spoil or no longer be consumable. As long as the food is stored properly, Americans may still consume them. They may notice the quality deteriorates over time, which is expected, but it doesn’t mean they are no longer safe to eat.

The problem is because Americans don’t know these definitions by heart, they end up tossing away food products that are past their supposed dates.

2. Food Loss in the Supply Chain

No doubt, the confusing date terms on food labels can cause a lot of Americans to inadvertently throw away their grocery items. This type of waste makes up about 30 percent of food loss in the country. However, so do food loss that occurs in the supply chain. In fact, it accounts for at least 40 percent of the country’s food waste. Unfortunately, food loss can happen in almost every section of the supply-chain process:

Food Loss in Agriculture

Food waste at this level happens because of the following reasons:

Food Loss in Processing and Packaging

Just because the produce or ingredient ends up in a manufacturing or processing facility doesn’t mean it gets used completely. Not all may even be processed. Probably because of quality, size, and other conditions.

Even when they are processed, they may still be rejected because they don’t pass the quality standards, which can be as simple as not meeting the ideal weight, color, or taste.

Moreover, according to GreenBiz, as much as 25 percent of food waste that occurs at home is due to the size of the packaging or its design. The package may not be enough to completely protect the product, so it spoils fast. Condiments may stick to the bottom or the sides.

Food Loss in Distribution and Retail

The US also produces waste while the food product is still in transit. It happens when the delivery truck or van doesn’t come with sufficient storage or refrigeration. The lack of proper temperature control will lead to spoilage even before the goods reach the retailers.

Another potential explanation is the logistics issue. Factors such as weather, government policies, and other issues like the COVID-19 pandemic can hamper the flow of distribution and delivery. It increases the risk of spoilage while in transit.

3. Poor Forecasting of Food Demand

Businesses that need to maintain inventory demand a lot of correct forecasting. After all, not having enough products for consumers means profit losses. On the other hand, having a lot suggests higher expenses, particularly overhead.

Food retailers and restaurants, among others, though, may find themselves in a predicament. Forecasting isn’t the easiest thing to do because

- they often deal with perishable goods with a short shelf life and

- their demand can increase or decrease depending on the situation. For example, a promo for a particular item may boost the demand for that while declining that of others.

Unlike canned goods, these businesses cannot store their fresh produce for a long period since their quality can deteriorate over time.

In recent news, the COVID-19 pandemic is one of the major events that have led to significant food waste and loss, particularly in the United States, as outlined by the Gardner Policy Series released in September 2020 . Some of the vital points include:

4. Consumer Behavior

That’s nearly $2,000 for every household. This is more than enough to cover a lot of the essential household expenses — from mortgage to utilities or at least five months of the average student loan repayment.

That’s not all. The same report revealed that a typical American family would end up throwing away over 30 percent of their food supply. Why?

Although the growth of deliveries allowed many restaurants to survive, it also contributed to food waste. Many households failed to consume leftovers or cook the available ingredients.

What Happens to Food Waste?

Considering the different possible causes of food waste, it’s safe to say that everyone has contributed to it one way or the other. But there’s a bigger question besides the how: what is the impact of food waste on different aspects of people’s lives?

1. Environmental Impact

Food waste has a direct environmental impact not only here in the United States but around the world. Every morsel of food that doesn’t get consumed is also a waste of resources used to make it.

Manufacturing and processing facilities, meanwhile, spend money on rent, utilities, equipment, and fuel, to name a few. Retailers may allot a part of their cash flow to higher costs for refrigeration.

If that isn’t enough, it puts the world in a vicious cycle. Both global warming and climate change can impact agriculture by shortening or lengthening the harvest season, for instance. As mentioned, ill-time harvesting can lead to food loss.

Climate change can also potentially change the quality of food since it may alter the conditions of the soil, weather, and the responses of plants to these changes in their surroundings. Moreover, it can disrupt the availability of much-needed resources like water or sunshine.

Lastly, food waste can increase both land and water pollution especially in this age where many types of produce are wrapped in individual plastic or placed in Styrofoam containers. These, like food, can end up in landfills, where plastics can take about a thousand years to decompose.

Otherwise, they may find themselves in waterways and even bigger bodies of water such as the ocean where they can threaten marine life.

As food waste and plastics accumulate, the country may need more landfills, thereby converting vacant lands into dumpsites instead of using them to plant more crops and help resolve food insecurity.

2. Economic

Food waste can also contribute to indirect business costs, such as higher labor expenses. Imagine this: a farmer hires additional hands during harvest season, paying them the minimum wage but letting them work for up to 8 hours.

However, a hurricane passes by the town, damaging the structures in the land and, worse, leaving copious amounts of water that flood the plants.

Farmers may have no other choice but to harvest these goods before too much water destroys them further. But by this time, a significant portion of the yield may no longer be of quality. Sellers then may be faced with two choices, none of which is a win.

- First, they can sell their products below the farm gate price just to attract buyers.

- Second, throw them away, along with the costs of resources used for producing them.

Either way, the farmers end up with a lower profit, but they still need to pay the extra help their due.

3. Social

Food waste might as well be a humanitarian crisis. First, it is a slap to the growing food insecurity in America.

Food insecurity is worse among certain demographics. In the same year, nearly 40 percent of food-insecure homes had incomes below the poverty line. The percentage was also higher among homes with a single parent as well as blacks and Hispanic families.

Moreover, although many parents protect their children from getting hungry, at least 13 percent still couldn’t escape experiencing the problem. In almost 7 percent of households, both parents and children were food insecure.

The gargantuan amounts of food that end up in landfills and trash could have been donated to food banks, especially since none of the dates on the labels indicate a period of expiration. The food expires only when it shows signs of spoilage or contamination.

Second, as mentioned, food waste can aggravate climate change and global warming. Incidentally, these global issues also contribute to food insecurity.

In a 2020 study by Nature Food , UK researchers looked into the global yields of over 15 most-farmed crops. These include rye, cotton, cassava, oats, rice, sugar beet, barley, wheat, and soybeans. These types of produce represented around 70 percent of the global crops area.

Furthermore, the negative impact was the greatest on places that could already be facing severe food insecurity, such as Brazil, sub-Saharan Africa, India, and Indonesia. As a side note, these are also places with the largest populations.

Meanwhile, David Attenborough revealed a startling statistic that said plastic pollution is a public health emergency and contributes to at least 400,000 deaths , particularly in the poorest nations.

These types of waste, for example, when they accumulate, can clog waterways, making these places breeding grounds for vectors of diseases like mosquitoes and flies. They can also increase the risk of flooding and, in turn, people displacement.

Significant Initiatives to Reduce Food Waste

Food waste affects not only the home — it impacts everyone — and with the high environmental, economic, and social costs associated with it, it begs the question: what is the United States doing to deal with it? There’s no single solution but a series of sensible approaches.

1. Government Policies

Government policies are very important. It often serves as foundation for the majority of positive actions that stakeholders will do to reduce food waste.

In 2015, in line with its objectives for the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the United States launched the Food Loss and Waste Reduction Goal. The primary purpose is to decrease the percentage of food loss and waste by at least 50 percent within the next 15 years (or until 2030).

To do this, one of its to-dos is to work closely with various stakeholders that include but are not limited to farmers and ranchers, community gardeners, transporters, and retail markets that cover vendors, restaurants, and grocers.

The government and the various sectors also created the Food Recovery Hierarchy, which aims to determine priority actions from the most preferred to the least method of disposal. For example, for all participants, the food waste and loss goal should focus on source reduction, which is to limit the generated surplus food.

If organizations cannot avoid producing a surplus, the next step is to feed hungry people. It involves donating extra food to shelters, soup kitchens, and food banks. The least preferred option to reduce food waste is to place it in landfills or incinerators.

The hierarchy then becomes one of the guidelines for the Food Recovery Challenge, which businesses can sign up for. It’s an incentive program wherein those who meet the criteria can receive recognition from the EPA. The recognition can serve as the organization’s bragging rights, and receive tax breaks when they spearhead a food donation program. They can also receive technical assistance and support from the agency’s regional representative.

2. Apps and Organizations

Many organizations and businesses are also stepping up to decrease food waste. This is a response to the government’s 2030 reduction goal or as a personal agenda or the company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR).

- Some are also leveraging technology to make information accessible and more immediate. These include mobile platforms like FoodforAll. It connects its subscribers to nearby restaurants that may have excess food. At the end of the day, before the establishment closes, Americans can purchase these meals at a discount.

- On the other hand, Flashfood addresses a common reason for food waste: the best-before date. As mentioned, the FDA has already made it clear that the date usually isn’t for safety but quality. Many types of food can still be consumed past the date provided it is stored properly or correctly. More often than not, though, retailers make it a policy to throw away food that is past its best-before date. Flashfood tries to avoid that by selling goods near the date at a massive discount. It can even be as low as 50 percent.

- Transfernation is a B2B platform that works closely with events organizers and caterers. On many occasions, guests leave behind a lot of food, which could have gone to waste. Transfernation instead collects this surplus and distributes it to food banks and shelters.

- What about groceries? Giant Eagle was the first biggest supermarket in the country to have launched a program called “Produce with Personality”. Based on its name, the goal is to sell “ugly produce” (food with cosmetic imperfections) that is less likely to be picked by consumers at more “attractive prices,” including deeper discounts or promos.

- In 2016, Whole Foods partnered with Imperfect Produce, a company that sells ugly-produce subscription boxes directly to households. Over the years, similar business models appeared, including Hungry Harvest and Misfits Markets.

- Around the same year, Starbucks promised to send its excess or unused food to the needy. Via a program known as , one of the world’s biggest coffee brands teamed up with organizations like Feeding America and Food Donation Connection, which will collect the food in Starbucks’ over 7,000 locations nationwide.

3. Sustainable-related Brands

Moreover, over 70 percent were buying more environment-friendly goods than five years ago. At least 80 percent expected to purchase more for the next five years.

The report also suggests that consumers are also making businesses more accountable and participative. Almost 85 percent believed that it is extremely important or important that companies make sustainable products or those that can be either recycled or reused (or both).

This shift led to the appearance and growth of more sustainable-driven brands like Buffalo Market, which supports food companies with equally sustainable, ethical practices. These include Inked Organics, which bake various types of organic bread in small batches to avoid excess or overstocking.

Brands like Numi Organic Tea and Frontier National Products do not only sell high-quality, carefully sourced goods but also improve the utilization of resources need to produce or send them to markets and customers.

Frontier National Products offers carbon-neutral shipping while Numi Organic Tea processes its products in a facility run by solar energy. Both also buy renewable energy credits to help offset the carbon footprint they may generate at any point in the supply chain.

Since 1988, Organic Valley, a farmer-owned coop, collaborates with nearby farms to sell their organic dairy and meat products among its over 1,500 member farms. With this type of linkage, these highly perishable goods travel shorter distances, minimizing contamination along the way, reducing the need for longer refrigeration, and decreasing supply-chain costs such as fuel.

Conclusion

Food waste isn’t just a household problem. It is a pressing global issue rooted in a lot of causes, which include false perception and poor resource management.

Its impact isn’t limited to the several square feet of a home. Rather, it touches on climate change, land and water pollution, and even food insecurity that affects not only the United States but also the rest of the world.

But as they say, the first step to solving a problem is to acknowledge it — and the country is taking notice and action. While more work needs to be done, as long as the concerned sectors work hand in hand, the United States can be on track in achieving its 2030 food waste and loss reduction goal.

Originally published at https://www.buffalomarket.com.