Would Canadians ever get rid of “Best Before” dates?

Clip Hey, it’s Robbie, the intern from the unscripted, unpredictable Pepper and Dylan Show Podcast, which is brought to you in part by the Mazda CX 15 Minutes Challenge. In partnership with participation. It’s your chance to reconnect with nature, and you’ll have a chance to win cool prizes. Find out more at Mazda.ca. Check out the Pepper and Dylan Show podcast available on the Frequency Podcast Network’s Spotify, Google Podcast and Apple Podcast. The Amityville Relocation was presented as a liberal and humanitarian measure to improve the living conditions of underprivileged people. What went wrong? We had something and they wanted it. They cheated us. And I’m the one that was cheated. They tore down our church in the middle of the night. Do you enjoy talking about Amityville? No, I don’t. Why not? Because it hurts me. What happened to Amityville? It’s something that has to be told. Find Amityville Forever. Wherever you get your podcast, you’re listening to a Frequency Podcast Network production in association with CityNews.

Jordan When you’re in the supermarket buying milk, do you ever look a few cartons back to see if there are some that expire later than the ones in front? Do you ever shuffle through piles of meat looking for the one with the latest date? When we do that, we’re not just buying food, we’re buying time. Oh, and also, milk doesn’t have an expiry date. It has a best before date and that’s an important distinction to keep in mind today. There’s a growing movement, at least in the United Kingdom so far, towards eliminating the best before dates on most products. Research shows they contribute to food waste. And if you haven’t noticed, food is getting really expensive. But would you buy your groceries without those best before dates? Would you rely on the colour of the lettuce or the smell of the milk? Or even the amount of dust that’s gathered on that can of soup in the pantry? A survey released today asked Canadians these questions. Some of our answers were predictable, but others demonstrated that when it comes to food safety, we can be hypocrites and perhaps our attitudes need to change. I’m Jordan Heath-Rawlings. This is The Big Story. Dr. Sylvain Charlebois is the senior director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University, which performed this study. He is also the co-host of the Food Professor Podcast. Hello, Dr. Charlebois.

Sylvain Charlebois Good morning.

Jordan Why don’t we start with the definition here? When we discuss best before dates on our food, what do those dates actually mean in Canada?

Sylvain Charlebois Well, so best before dates basically will suggest to the consumer when a manufacturer believes that the physical microbial content aspect of the food actually is compromised. So if it’s a fresh product, typically manufacturer will give about ten days, but if it’s a shelf-stable product, it’s 90 days. So a lot of products will have a best before date. And in Canada, very few products you’ll see an expiry date specifically, they use best before dates or package on that day. So in the fresh section of the grocery store, you’ll probably see a lot of packages that day, like in the meat section, for example.

Jordan Right. So tell me the difference then between best before dates and expiry dates.

Sylvain Charlebois Well, there’s not much difference. Just expiry dates will suggest that the product actually is no longer safe to eat. There are exceptions in the law in Canada, like baby formula would actually have an expiry date. There are a few exceptions in the law right now allowing manufacturers to put an expiry date, and you’re basically asked to throw that product away if that date has passed.

Jordan So you guys recently did, and the results are out today, a survey of Canadians examining our attitudes towards best before dates. Let’s begin this with a little bit of context. Why would you do this survey right now? What’s happening to make this conversation relevant I guess, especially in Europe?

Sylvain Charlebois Yeah, no, absolutely. I think there is a global context related to best before dates. In recent months, we have heard or learned that many grocers in the UK are actually eliminating best before dates on many of their products, anywhere between 300 to 500 Morrisons, Tesco. In fact, Tesco was the first one in the UK to do that four years ago. So this is not new. But in England and some parts of Europe, you’re hearing more and more grocers just eliminating best before dates. Because in science, there is a lot of blame given to best before dates, encouraging people to throw away perfectly safe food. It’s often blamed as a culprit to generate more food waste. So that’s why more and more grocers are looking at eliminating food waste. Now, in Canada, we haven’t seen that yet, and that’s why we thought it was a good idea to just go and ask Canadians about this issue.

Jordan Before we get to the results, do we have any idea how much best before dates can contribute to food waste? I’m sure everybody listening right now has had a product at some time where they thought it looked okay, maybe just a little discoloured or something, but the best before date had passed and they tossed it.

Sylvain Charlebois That’s right. So when you go back to the scientific literature, there are really two drivers that do come up on a regular basis. One is our ability or inability to manage inventory at home. So you’ll forget things in your cupboard, even on your counter, kitchen counter in your fridge, because life takes over, you’re travelling, you’re not eating a specific planned meal at home, you’re eating away from home. Those are the types of things that actually generate more waste. And the other thing is best before dates. A lot of people will throw away food after the expiration date or the best before it has passed. So you basically are encouraging people to throw away food regardless of whether or not the food is safe to eat or not.

Jordan So what were you guys hoping to find out by undertaking the survey of Canadians?

Sylvain Charlebois Well, we were wondering whether or not what’s going on in the UK is actually possible, again, is there any interest, is there willingness, some willingness from Canadians to actually buy products without a best before date? And frankly, I don’t think anybody has actually looked into this matter until now.

Jordan Okay, so don’t keep us in suspense then. What are the top-line results of this survey, and were you surprised by it?

Sylvain Charlebois 27% of cans actually would support the elimination of best before dates on food packages. It’s 9% who would strongly support, and 18% would support. The rest of the Canadians would basically not do it. The fact that this percentage is very low, it’s not surprising. In our country in Canada, we have a very strong food safety culture. In fact, when you look at over the last 20 years, I’ve participated in some benchmarking exercises and we actually realize that our food safety culture is very strong. The food industry is very good at providing safe food to Canadians, but there is a downside to that. People are addicted to food safety practices, including best before dates. So it’s embedded in our culture whereas, in Europe, I’m not saying that people actually will eat anything and everything. It’s just food safety is not as top of mind as it is here. I mean, there’s not even a chance for any policymakers to entertain the idea. Cause I actually have been on Twitter of late asking people what they would do, how they would see that, and you can feel that it’s not even a polarizing issue. It’s just the vast majority of Canadians would see that as irresponsible behaviour I guess.

Jordan If it’s not even polarizing on Twitter, you know, it’s a consensus.

Sylvain Charlebois Exactly. Well, there are differences between food categories, of course.

Jordan Right, yeah. So tell me about that. Actually, there are some real details in here. So what kinds of products best before dates do Canadians really respect and what do we just ignore?

Sylvain Charlebois Yeah, so obviously animal proteins are a problem. I think people are reassured by best before dates, and I’m talking about dairy and meat products. Both categories, they scored very strongly. People absolutely want the best of four days because often as consumers, when you walk into a grocery store, yes, you do buy food, but you also buy time. Every time I go to a grocery store, we’ll see someone look at different packages, they will look at dates, and they want to buy the product on the best before date is the latest as possible because you don’t know exactly when you could consume this product. And so you want to give yourself some time as much as possible. On the other hand, and this is really the tricky part, if you’re actually buying a product for which the best before is tomorrow or the next day, you’re expecting a discount, and more and more grocers are actually offering discounts. Well, if you eliminate these best before dates, how can you possibly provide discounts? So there is a theory out there suggesting that if you actually eliminate best before days, you could raise food prices because the ability for consumers to save based on the time there’s left before the best before date is passed is limited. So there’s a lot there that needs to be unpacked over the next little while because we haven’t really looked into that matter.

Jordan I’d never thought about it that way. That when I’m looking for meat and milk and I do exactly what you just described, I’m also purchasing time. But it’s exactly what you’re doing because you want it to sit there for a while.

Sylvain Charlebois Yeah. And you don’t want to be rushed or pushed into buying or eating something at home. You want options. We want options as much as possible. So if you don’t feel like eating the steak you bought today at the grocery store, you want to eat it tomorrow, you want to have the luxury of having that option. But if you get a 50% discount, well, you may be willing to compromise along the way. Well, eliminating the best before dates would actually reduce the number of opportunities for consumers to save.

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Jordan So I’ve seen some conversations about eliminating the best before dates, and one of the arguments that I’ve seen by people who are in favour of doing that because of the contribution to food waste is that, for 95% or whatever of the products we’re talking about here, you would instantly know when it was actually bad, right. Nobody’s opening expired milk and drinking it and not realizing immediately that it’s off.

Sylvain Charlebois That’s right.

Jordan I guess my question is, isn’t it enough that we can be able to tell what is the actual safety risk of eating products after their best before dates, given that it’s often so obvious?

Sylvain Charlebois Oh yeah, so many people actually will rely on senses too, I guess, assess whether or not a product is safe or not. Smell, taste, looking at the product itself. But it is also important to know that most microorganisms that can make people sick do not change the smell or the look of the food. Listeria is a good example of that. And of course, the 2008 Listeria outbreak that happened at Maple Leaf really reminded us that you can actually have a sandwich with processed meat, that meat could actually have Listeria, but you can’t really see it. It would taste the same, but it would actually make you sick. And unfortunately, we did learn at the time that 22 Canadians actually died as a result. So that certainly is something that is top of mind for many Canadians.

Jordan So that brings me to what you call in the survey, food safety contradictions. Can you give me some examples of those? How do we contradict ourselves?

Sylvain Charlebois Well. And this is really what I think is a bit fascinating because I think there are two tales, I guess, in the survey. Because we did ask Canadians whether or not they consume food after it’s best before they pass. And 78% of Canes actually did say that. But at the same time, 65% of Cain is actually thrown out unopened food because it’s best before date has passed. So on one side, you have people living on the edge I guess and on the other, even though the product is on open, they just threw the products away. So it’s really interesting. There’s a mixed bag of risk managers out there, consumers, and this is what’s going on in the UK. UK grocers are telling their customers, you know what, you’re the most important risk manager in the entire supply chain. I don’t think it can happen in Canada, at least not yet.

Jordan Do Canadian grocers have similar power with the government, get involved or need to approve? If, say, Loblaws wanted to eliminate best before dates but Sobeys wanted to keep them, is it still each business’s choice?

Sylvain Charlebois It’s complicated because in Canada we have a three-layered food safety system. There are municipalities, provinces, and the federal governments. So as a grocer, you’d be concerned about municipalities because they’re the ones providing oversight, so you want them on board along with provinces and the federal government. The federal government will actually set regulations related to labelling and best before dates as well. And Health Canada is also involved in that discussion. So it’s a bit complicated. I mean, just Metro a couple of years ago decided to allow people to come in with their own containers to get refilled by clerks in the store, that took about two to three years to get it approved. We’re dealing with heavy bureaucracy here in Canada. So unless a grocer decides to lead the way in Canada and say this is nonsense, we’re not going to see any changes. But our study today shows that it would be a highly unpopular position for any grocery in Canada actually to take.

Jordan You mentioned that animal products are the ones people are most cautious about. What are people the least cautious about? What foods are people most likely to eat even though the best before date is passed?

Sylvain Charlebois So in the report, you can see that there is a major difference between, say, dairy, meat, and I should mention also seafood. Those are the three big categories where best before dates are very critical for respondents. On the other hand, you have produce and packaged food, non-perishables, I guess, center-to-store items, dry goods, best before dates aren’t necessarily that important. They’re what I was surprised about, bakery. Bakery scored high in preprepared foods as well. So the counter-ready food products, the preprepared food ready-to-eat products, those products really scored much higher than expected.

Jordan When you say higher than expected, you mean more people were willing to eat them past the date?

Sylvain Charlebois Well, actually, no more people saw the best before date as important for that specific category.

Jordan So it’s pretty obvious that at least politically, this is not a palatable option, no pun intended, for Canadians. We’ve discussed this a lot this year and there is inflation, and there are supply chain issues. There are even food shortages in various parts of the world. If eliminating best before dates are not an option, what could be done to reduce food waste and make the food available to us last longer?

Sylvain Charlebois Well, first of all, I think the best before date option is considered because the one level where we see a lot of food waste and eat our supply chain is at the consumption level. We do waste a lot of food at home. There are a couple of things you can do, of course. One is to better the packaging technology. There is technology out there basically that could give information to consumers in real-time, whether a product is in a fridge or in a cupboard, telling the consumer whether or not the product has a pathogen in it or not. I mean basically and so the label would turn, say from green to yellow to red. Okay, but that comes at a cost and we are seeing skyrocketing prices. So I’m not entirely convinced that a lot of people would want to see higher prices as a result of high-tech packaging telling them whether or not our product is safe or not.

Jordan Right

Sylvain Charlebois I would say basically the most important thing is education. Telling people what do best before dates mean. It doesn’t necessarily bad after. It just means you may want to trust your senses. But not everyone can afford to trust the senses. If you have a compromised immune system it’s very difficult to take on that risk. If you’re pregnant, for example, things like that. It really depends on who you are really. And so those are the things that could actually make a big difference at the end of the day. But on the other side, on the supply side, there is some exaggeration using best before dates. For example, you’re seeing the best before dates on salt and honey and these products will never go bad, ever. And so you’re seeing some abuse of the policy, I guess, slapping best before dates on anything and everything. And I would certainly encourage some oversight there.

Jordan You mentioned that Canada has an incredibly strong food safety culture. Does that need to evolve to grapple with food needs in a changing world?

Sylvain Charlebois I think so. And the fact that food prices are going up I think will actually get people to think differently about food and food access. And frankly, food waste is something that is much more top of mind now because people realize. So for example, in Canada this year, in 2022, the average family will probably spend over $14,000 on food, well of which at least $2000 will be thrown away at home, at least $2000. So if you don’t throw away any food you’ll offset the impact of inflation and people are starting to notice because they are paying more for food. So that education is important but also getting people to make different choices based on who they are and how their health can cope with some of these products, I think it can actually make a big difference. And you could actually lessen pressure on our food systems because we’re basically selling a lot of food that really ends up in the garbage, unfortunately.

Jordan Sylvain, thank you so much for this. Always fascinating.

Sylvain Charlebois My pleasure.

Jordan Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, senior director at the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University. That was The Big Story. You know what’s coming next. I’m about to ask you to take our listener survey. In fact, I will beg you, if you need that to go get it done, you can go to thebigstorypodcast.ca. You can click on the word survey at the very top of the home page, or you can just type in thebigstorypodcast.ca/survey. It takes about five minutes to complete. You can offer your unrestrained feedback. I am especially looking for constructive criticism. We wouldn’t ask you guys for your opinion if we didn’t plan to do something with it. So please help us out. thebigstorypodcast.ca/survey. You can find The Big Story in every podcast player and on every smart speaker. Just say play The Big Story podcast. And, of course, ratings, reviews, ask friends, you know the drill. Thanks for listening. I’m Jordan Heath-Rawlings. We’ll talk tomorrow. Back to top of page