646: Expiration Dates | Skeptical Sunday

Economic Costs

The financial costs associated with food waste are immense. David C. Smalley highlights that food companies spend millions on lobbying to avoid regulations that would reduce food waste, as this would cut into their profits 1. Jordan Harbinger adds that if companies lost 40% of their profits due to reduced food waste, it could lead to significant unemployment 1. David suggests federal standardized expiration dates based on scientific data to mitigate this issue 2.

We need federal standardized expiration dates that are scientifically based because all these states mostly let politicians and the corporations kind of lobby as to when to do it. And that's definitely the wrong way to do it.

--- David C. Smalley

Until such regulations are in place, consumers are encouraged to use resources like Food Keeper for accurate information on food shelf life 2.

   

Environmental Costs

Food waste also has severe environmental consequences. David C. Smalley explains that 30-40% of food produced in the U.S. is wasted, which translates to 160 billion pounds of food and $408 billion annually 3. This waste also squanders 25% of the fresh water used in food production and contributes significantly to landfills 3. Jordan Harbinger notes the confusion around expiration dates, which leads to premature disposal of food 4.

40 percent of the food that we produce in the United States takes up 25 percent of the clean water. And then we throw that food away.

--- David C. Smalley

Standardizing expiration dates could save millions of pounds of food and billions of gallons of water each year 4.