ZAGREB, February 16, 2018 – The European Commission has published a large study on the impact of “use by date” labels on food waste in the EU, which amounts to about 90 million tonnes a year, with 10% of that quantity being thrown out because of the use by date, Croatian MEP Biljana Borzan’s Osijek-based office said in a press release on Friday.
Borzan notes that it was thought that the large quantity of food that is thrown out is related to incorrectly labelled food products and consumers not understanding the difference between the terms “Use by” and “Best before”, and that now there is firm data and statistics on which to recommend legal and other measures to curb this problem.
She warned that less than half the EU citizens understand the difference between “Use by” and “Best before” labels that are prescribed by EU law, and that food can still be used for days, weeks and months after the expiry of the date on the latter label yet it is massively thrown out.
The “Best before” date means that producers claim that by that date the product has the best quality, for example, it retains its crunchiness and colour. “An experiment in Sweden and Norway replaced that label with one that says ‘best quality by’ and ‘best before, and usable after’. The European Commission should certainly take that initiative into consideration,” Borzan said.
She underscored that some producers participating in a large survey said that they deliberately put a shorter use by date than they should in order to avoid possible problems. Surveys conducted by consumer protection associations also said that the shorter use by date was sometimes used so that products wouldn’t remain on shelves too long and stores would have to order more frequently.
Borzan said that a “good part of the 90 million tonnes of food that is thrown out each year in the EU is still usable and that the EU and member states have a moral and political obligation to prevent food waste.”
“Even if queues in front of soup kitchens didn’t exist and almost one in five citizens wasn’t at risk of poverty, that is an enormous quantity of food whose production required exploiting resources like water, soil, fuel and labour hours,” Borzan said.
