Campaign win – standardised date labels!

In 2016 we brought our flagship campaign Feeding the 5000 to America, catalyzing the US food waste movement and sparking a desire to change the broken food system. Our number one ask at our events in the USA was immediate industry-led date label standardisation. This week we had a massive campaign win! Two major trade associations; The Food Marketing Institute and Grocery Manufactures Association, have released guidance on standardised date labeling! This is BIG and shows that pressure from the food waste movement has made the food industry step up to the plate and address this issue.

The guidance aims to remove the long list of confusing date labels used by retailers and replace it with just two standard phrases ‘Best if used by’ and ‘Use by’. A simple common sense solution to the date label mess that confuses consumers into wasting food – experts estimate that this confusion is responsible for 20% of avoidable household food waste.

This is a critical step in the battle to reduce food waste – all that is needed now is a push by the big US supermarkets – Walmart, Publix, Safeway, Kroger, and Costco to roll out this guidance themselves. We need to keep the pressure up to make sure they do!

Thank you to everyone who signed and shared our petition – our voice is being listened to! A massive shout out to the NRDC and Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic for their vital work on this area.

It is so exciting to be part of the growing food waste movement in America, what a great start to 2017 and there is so much more to come!