Confusion over best-before dates drives $600 in annual food waste per Quebec household

A study finds half of the food wasted each year in Quebec homes is due to misunderstanding best-before dates.

A new study estimates that Quebec households waste $600 a year on food, with half of that loss linked to confusion over “best before” dates.

It’s not necessarily an expiry date on your packaged foods — it’s a best-before date.

Sylvain Charlebois, director of Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food Analytics Lab, says: “Best before doesn’t mean bad after. Essentially, there’s no science to these dates. When you talk to a food manufacturer, essentially, they just supply it based on when the product comes off the line.”

The study says 74 per cent of Quebecers rely on the best-before date when deciding if a product is safe to eat.

Charlebois explains: “A Greek yogurt that’s been in your fridge for a couple of months, if the best-before date was a couple of months ago, you can still eat the yogurt if you trust your senses. If it’s unopened, if it’s open, all bets are off!”

“Trust your senses” is the basis for the “Look, Smell, Taste” campaign, which helps consumers make the call on their packaged groceries, says Nicolas Dot of TooGoodToGo.com.

“If the product is unopened, stored correctly and according to the manufacturer’s advice, then your eyes, your nose and your mouth will give you the best indication of whether it’s still edible,” he says.

The initiative is called Too Good To Go, and some shoppers we spoke to at Esposito’s in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce agree.

One shopper said: “If I sniff it and it smells funky, then no, but if it’s fine, then yes.”

Charlebois says animal proteins are much riskier and does not recommend going beyond the dates.

He adds: “Salmonella and contamination, these are things you can’t smell, you can’t see. So you’ve got to be careful.”

“At a time when people are going hungry, food waste is too high,” says Dot.

“Forty-six per cent of all the food produced in Canada is wasted. That happens at every level, from farm to fork, and on a household level it’s 28 per cent.”

The study reveals that more than half of Quebecers consider the cost of food when deciding whether to eat products past their best-before date. Charlebois adds: “To throw away perfectly good food to buy more food… but now, I think because of higher food prices, the culture is slowly changing.”

Look for the Too Good To Go label, and be ready to look, smell and taste before you waste.