Posted on 07/22/2022 11:05:11 AM PDT by Red Badger
Florida's outbreak of listeria has so far led to at least one death, 22 hospitalizations and an ice cream recall since January.
Humans get sick with listeria infections, or listeriosis, from eating soil-contaminated food, undercooked meat or dairy products that are raw, or unpasteurized. Listeria can cause convulsions, coma, miscarriage and birth defects. And it's the third leading cause of food poisoning deaths in the US.
Avoiding unseen food hazards is the reason people often check the dates on food packaging. And printed with the month and year is often one of a dizzying array of phrases: "best by," "use by," "best if used before," "best if used by," "guaranteed fresh until," "freeze by" and even a "born on" label applied to some beer.
People think of them as expiration dates, or the date at which a food should go in the trash. But the dates have little to do with when food expires, or becomes less safe to eat. I am a microbiologist and public health researcher, and I have used molecular epidemiology to study the spread of bacteria in food.
A more science-based product dating system could make it easier for people to differentiate foods they can safely eat from those that could be hazardous.
Costly confusion The United States Department of Agriculture reports that in 2020 the average American household spent 12% of its income on food. But a lot of food is simply thrown away, despite being perfectly safe to eat.
The USDA Economic Research Center reports that nearly 31% of all available food is never consumed. Historically high food prices make the problem of waste seem all the more alarming.
The current food labeling system may be to blame for much of the waste. The FDA reports consumer confusion around product dating labels is likely responsible for around 20% of the food wasted in the home, costing an estimated US$161 billion per year.
It's logical to believe that date labels are there for safety reasons, since the federal government enforces rules for including nutrition and ingredient information on food labels.
Passed in 1938 and continuously modified since, the Food, Drug, and Cosmetics Act requires food labels to inform consumers of nutrition and ingredients in packaged foods, including the amount of salt, sugar and fat it contains.
The dates on those food packages, however, are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. Rather, they come from food producers. And they may not be based on food safety science.
For example, a food producer may survey consumers in a focus group to pick a "use by" date that is six months after the product was produced because 60% of the focus group no longer liked the taste. Smaller manufacturers of a similar food might play copycat and put the same date on their product.
More interpretations One industry group, the Food Marketing Institute and Grocery Manufacturers Association, suggests that its members mark food "best if used by" to indicate how long the food is safe to eat, and "use by" to indicate when food becomes unsafe.
But using these more nuanced marks is voluntary. And although the recommendation is motivated by a desire to cut down on food waste, it is not yet clear if this recommended change has had any impact.
A joint study by the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic and the National Resources Defense Council recommends the elimination of dates aimed at consumers, citing potential confusion and waste.
Instead, the research suggests manufacturers and distributors use "production" or "pack" dates, along with "sell-by" dates, aimed at supermarkets and other retailers. The dates would indicate to retailers the amount of time a product will remain at high quality.
The FDA considers some products "potentially hazardous foods" if they have characteristics that allow microbes to flourish, like moisture and an abundance of nutrients that feed microbes.
These foods include chicken, milk and sliced tomatoes, all of which have been linked to serious foodborne outbreaks. But there is currently no difference between the date labeling used on these foods and that used on more stable food items.
Scientific formula Infant formula is the only food product with a "use by" date that is both government regulated and scientifically determined. It is routinely lab tested for contamination.
But infant formula also undergoes nutrition tests to determine how long it take the nutrients – particularly protein – to break down. To prevent malnutrition in babies, the "use by" date on baby formula indicates when it's no longer nutritious.
Nutrients in foods are relatively easy to measure. The FDA already does this regularly. The agency issues warnings to food producers when the nutrient contents listed on their labels don't match what FDA's lab finds.
Microbial studies, like the ones we food safety researchers work on, are also a scientific approach to meaningful date labeling on foods. In our lab, a microbial study might involve leaving a perishable food out to spoil and measuring how much bacteria grows in it over time.
Scientists also do another kind of microbial study by watching how long it takes microbes like listeria to grow to dangerous levels after intentionally adding the microbes to food to watch what they do, noting such details as growth in the amount of bacteria over time and [when there's enough to cause illness].
Consumers on their own Determining the shelf life of food with scientific data on both its nutrition and its safety could drastically decrease waste and save money as food gets more expensive.
But in the absence of a uniform food dating system, consumers could rely on their eyes and noses, deciding to discard the fuzzy bread, green cheese or off-smelling bag of salad.
People could also might pay close attention to the dates for more perishable foods, like cold cuts, in which microbes grow easily. They can also find guidance at FoodSafety.gov. Jill Roberts, Associate Professor of Global Health, University of South Florida
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
My tuna doesn’t taste as good as it used to.
Well, you really ARE a packaging guy!
👌😜...................................
It might make you eat something you would find you would have rather not have.
I keep some of both on hand but I would have to be desperate to use them in anything but baked goods.
Food and medicine expirations dates stamped on product containers are based on lawyerly advice towards being conservative in the maximum.
The DOD, using its stores of medicines as well as the inventory of medicines in the VA system, analyzed thousands of batches of medicines, reviewing findings indicating the level of efficacy of the pills, and found most were still efficatious, even with expirations dates many years past.
Food, unlike most medicines, is “live” material and its expiration dates are trickier.
I use my own sight and smell test and an item has to pass both. Even then, occasionally I have decided to use up some leftover that I should have tossed out. But there is always peptobismol LOL.
I once bought a jug of white vinegar with an expiration date.
If only there were something they could put in the bottle to preserve it.
I would not worry if it were glass.
Plastic - I would use it or transfer to glass.
Augason Farms doesn’t seem to be a very good survivalist food company according to many reviews saying that the food is put into the buckets without any other bags or oxygen absorbers, just rice or whatever put into a (hopefully) sealed bucket.
Something Augason does that I find disturbing is selling buckets of long term storage foods advertised as good for up to 30 years, but the bucket will include a mix of 10 year and 30 year foods.
Let’s see. If I’m selling food, I have motivation to print a “use by” date on the product that is very conservative.
- the sooner consumers throw out my product, the more I will sell
- I can reduce the risk of someone suing me because they claim they got sick eating the food before its “use by” date
If “use by” date isn’t regulated, I’d would guess that manufacturers’ “use by” dates are much sooner than reality.
I’ve found that 1 TBS. of Kale per Pound of bacon is an acceptable ratio.
Oops, typo. That’s 1 Tsp. of Kale.
My wife is an organizer. I do the shopping and freezer wrapping but she organizes. We have a printed spreadsheet in the kitchen. What I bring home I wrap, date and then enter on the spreadsheet. We have two upright freezers. The "meat" freezer has 4 shelves - one for each quarter of the year. The food is rotated by date so we generally use within a 6-9 month period. But there is always room if I find a really good meat sale.
Generally, we look at the spreadsheet every couple of days and take out the oldest food for the next several meals. It is remarkably efficient. And very little meat gets bought at full price.
Freezer #1 paid for itself years ago. The new, second freezer is already pulling its weight in the food savings department. I bought 12 one pound packs of angus ground chuck this week at $3 off (half price). That's $36 savings right there.
As an aside... I love fermenting my vegetables. Especially super sour dill cucumbers. The longest batch I have done is two years. Yum.
As for canned food and mres... I have eaten 10 year old of each. Mostly odd ball canned vegetables. Toss them in a pot of chili and they’re good to go.
If you boil water for pasta you can freeze the boiled water to use later. It lasts indefinitely...
#61 My tuna doesn’t taste as good as it used to.
That is because it has less dolphin in it then the old days : )
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