Study: Companies commit to simplify food date labels worldwide by 2020
The Call to Action recommends companies partner with non-profit organizations and government agencies to educate consumers about how to interpret date labels.
"Sell by," "Use by," "Display until," "Best before," what do they all mean? Consumers around the world navigate a range of date labels on food products, and the resulting confusion costs families up to $29 billion annually in the United States alone. That’s why the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF), a Silver Spring, Md.-based network of consumer goods companies across 70 countries, along with Champions 12.3 approved a Call to Action to standardize food date labels worldwide by 2020.
The CGF board of directors includes companies like Tesco, Kellogg, Walmart, Campbell Soup, Bimbo, Pick n Pay, Nestlé, Carrefour and Unilever. The Call to Action says retailers and food producers should take three important steps to simplify date labels and reduce food waste by 2020: