According to Feeding America, 108 billion (with a b) pounds of food are thrown away annually in the United States. That equates to approximately $408 billion wasted every year. To me, that is a staggering quantity in both columns. This is likely due in large part to the confusing use dates printed and displayed on food purchased every day at the grocery store. Most may be extraordinarily surprised to know that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has no standards for such markings. Instead, there is a “hodgepodge” of state laws and “best practices” in place as guidelines for such dates.

Smells like a scam to me

I grew up in a household that treated the “best by” date on a gallon of milk as fluid. If there was more than 1/4 gallon left in the jug, we were good 3-4 days past the date printed on the container (at least). According to the National Library of Medicine concluded that humans regularly react to and choose not to eat foods that are visually displeasing and actually unsafe to eat. Yet, how many of us regularly throw away food items in our refrigerators and pantries simply because they have an arbitrary date printed on their label? I can tell you it happens frequently in my household. But riddle me this, does dried rosemary or thyme actually expire? Should I regularly be rotating out my seasonings, or is the food industry taking advantage of unwitting customers?

Well, a supermarket chain in the United Kingdom has taken it upon itself to ditch such dates on many fresh produce items. In addition to the flat waste of perfectly good food, they say that food waste “is responsible for 25 percent of water consumption.” If you live in any place where water consumption is an issue, you should take note, 25% is an enormous number.

Supermarket brands, Kroger, WalMart, and Ahold Delhaize have all committed to zero food waste by the year 2025. While I have my reservations, it ultimately falls to the consumer to hold these corporations accountable to these promises.

Why is this important?

Acording to the United States Department of Argiculture nine-million children in the United States are “food insecure.” Are we not the most prosperous and advanced country in the world? If so, how do we allow nine-million children to go without guaranteed food? While this may be unpopular with some, I don’t care as much about the “food insecure” adults, but children can become victims of their circumstance, by no fault of their own. The rest of us should be doing better, myself included.

It’s so easy to get wrapped up in the bubble that is your life, but it would behoove us as a society to be more cognisant of what is happening around us, within out own communities. If we all just did one thing differently, that may positively benefit another, once a month, we’d all be a lot better off.

So the next time you are compelled to throw away food based solely on its “sell by” or “best by” date, take a realistic look at the food and decide if it should be thrown away. As much as we all love Costco and Sam’s Club, before you buy products at these places, make sure you know you’re going to use it all. Beside being lest wasteful as a human, it’s also going to save you big money on your grocery expenses.