Food News

The fight against food waste requires that even packaged food has to be correctly labelled with regard to its shelf life.

Some food manufacturers now prefer to indicate "use by: date", even though the food in question is not among the "easily perishable" products. This could be assumed to be based on economic interests. However, this contradicts any notion of sustainability and inevitably leads to food waste.

Article 24, paragraph 1, sentence 1 of the German Food Information Regulation (LMIV) states that "only for foods that are highly perishable from a microbiological point of view and therefore may pose an immediate risk to human health after a short period of time, the best-before date (BBD) is to be replaced by the use-by date".

The most perishable foods include raw animal products such as minced meat, poultry, raw fish (sushi, sashimi, marinated salmon), raw milk products, but also freshly squeezed fruit and vegetable juices and non-preserved deli salads. These products must be labelled with a use-by date, e.g. "to be consumed by".

Unfortunately, many consumers are not aware of the difference between the two dates.

A food product with a best-before date can still be safely processed or consumed directly after the date has expired.

The products may also be sold by food retailers after the best-before date has expired – often at a reduced price. In addition, these products may be donated to charitable organisations such as the " food banks”, for example.

Products with an expired best-before date, on the other hand, must no longer be sold or donated. They must be disposed of properly, otherwise the retailer may even face fines.

The labelling is the responsibility of the food manufacturer. For reasons of sustainability, he should also handle the indication of consumption dates responsibly and only label products with this date that, in his opinion, could actually be harmful to health if exceeded.

In all other cases, the best option is to state the best-before date and to set it appropriately.

YOUR PLUS: The laboratories of the AGROLAB GROUP also carry out shelf-life studies and storage tests for customers on request and help to determine sensible best-before or use-by dates.

Author: Dr. Frank Mörsberger AGROLAB GROUP