Expiry Dates In The Grocery Industry

Let’s say you buy some yogurt and keep it in the fridge. Sometime later you want to eat it, but you see that it expired the previous day. Then you throw it away and think of it as money down the drain. Now think about the quantity of the product that would expire the same day and how much of it goes to waste. I first started to think about this problem when I was working at a grocery store last summer. I have seen the amount of waste the store produced on a daily basis and was appalled. This made me think about how people around the globe find it difficult to have 2 square meals a day, while we are unnecessarily trashing food which is still edible. From food to skin care, all products have an expiration date on them and are written in different ways. Commonly, the date is given as ‘Best Before’ or ‘Use By’ or ‘Sell By’ A popular misconception about expiry dates is the wrong interpretation of the different ways these dates are presented and the judgement of a product’s safety based on these dates. These different ways the expiry date …show more content…
The average American usually throws away $1000 a year due to food wastage. With the world’s population growing every day and poverty concerns in the world, there is no scope to waste food. The food discarded by stores alone could feed half the poor population. Some may argue that the expiry dates are the only way to be sure that what they are eating is safe; I don’t disagree with that. Expiry dates are a good reference to make sure that what you are eating is healthy, but it isn’t the only determining factor. Most products, with good storage, would last sometime past the expiry date and products which are not in an optimal environment might get spoiled before the date. Expiry dates are only an estimation as to when a product might go bad. Deterioration begins the moment the product has been produced. The rate of deterioration is based on numerous