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Dates on food products confuse consumers


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By Mary MacVean, Los Angeles Times

Ted Labuza ate sour cream on Tuesday that was two weeks past its due date. And lived to tell the tale.

Dana Gunders went to the market and found fat-free milk in quarts that had no date label; the half-gallon had a “sell-by” date, and another container from a different brand had a “best-by” date.

Even though nearly all consumers make some decisions about what to throw away based on those stamped dates, they cannot rely on them, said Gunders, food and agriculture staff scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

She is the coauthor of a report issued Wednesday by the NRDC and the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic.

Those dates are manufacturers’ suggestions for when an item is at its peak, or are efforts to help stores manage their inventory — not indications of food safety, the report says.

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  1. tahoe Pizza Eater says - Posted: September 22, 2013

    READ THE WORDS – – – This is a reading comprehension problem. When the english language is used recklessly, the real meaning of the words can be lost. Here for example the food industry places the words ” Best when used by ” on the food container. To a person understanding the english language, the words mean this product tastes best if it is eaten it by this date. To a person that doesn’t understand the specific meanings of words, this means, I need to eat this by this date. This is a failure by people to recognize that words are important. People with good communication skills understand the words. The problem here is that many people use the english language recklessly. This is also a common problem in employee performance.