We confront the expiration date whenever we shop, eat or discard food. This label has changed our foodways in profound and unforeseen manners, on the one hand increasing food safety while on the other reducing our sensory ability to judge food, thus leading to an increase in food waste. Only by understanding how the quality and expiration date of a product are interrelated and co-constructed by different actors, technologies and practices throughout the food chain, might we gain a better understanding of the phenomenon and be able to find solutions to a growing food waste problem. Based on ethnographic research at different locations, I will open the black box of the date label to unravel its internal complexities. I will show how human and non-human actors are entangled and connected via the expiration dateon the one hand co-constructing the double black box that hides the properties of the product milk and on the other being strongly influenced by their own construction.

In 2018, several Norwegian food producers added a new phrase to date labels of packaged foods: best before (date), often good after. Why and how did they do this? By using two concepts from Actor-Network Theory, translation and script, this article reveals how a seemingly simple addition to a label can reveal underlying issues and policies. This case study sheds light both on how the script of the date label was used to translate UN Sustainable Development Goal 12 about food waste reduction into everyday use and practice and how the date label moved from the domain of food policy making towards the realm of environmental politics.

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This chapter narrates the history behind the date label on food products in Norway. The date label was implemented for several reasons. On the one hand, it provided the necessary product information for consumers while on the other it solved the government’s desire for streamlining and controlling products “at a distance”. This had become necessary due to substantial changes in the “foodscape” of Norway after WWII that made it harder for consumers to evaluate and judge the freshness of products. Along with a rising awareness of the need for consumer information and the “empowerment of consumers”, this led to the legal regulation of the expiration date in the 1970s. After the establishment of the date label as a governmental mechanism, it was integrated and largely taken for granted by both producers and consumers. However, in recent years the date label has once again become the object of political and media attention – this time in the context of food waste, where it is seen as a contributing factor. The history of the date label shows that governmental regulations are not natural and inevitable, but the result of labor and negotiation between specific actors with specific interests – and they can have unintended consequences as the context within which they function changes.