Issues Associated With Sell By / Use By Dates
According to the UK Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), 33% percent of all food produced is wasted along the chill chain or by the consumer. At the same time, a large number of people get sick every year due to spoiled food. According to the WHO and CDC, every year in the USA there are 76 million foodborne illnesses, leading to 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths.
According to former UK minister Hilary Benn, the use by date and sell by dates are old technologies that are outdated and should be replaced by other solutions or disposed of altogether. The UK government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs revised guidance in 2011 to exclude the use of sell by dates. The guidance was prepared in consultation with the food industry, consumer groups, regulators, and Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP). It aims to reduce the annual £12bn of wasted supermarket food.
Read more about this topic: Shelf Life
Famous quotes containing the words issues, sell and/or dates:
“I can never bring you to realize the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace.”
—Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930)
“Yes, but I do not travel to find comfortable, rich, and hospitable people, or clear sky, or ingots that cost too much. But if there were any magnet that would point to the countries and houses where are the persons who are intrinsically rich and powerful, I would sell all, and buy it, and put myself on the road to-day.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Our dates are brief, and therefore we admire
What thou dost foist upon us that is old,”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)