Food waste: The role of date labels, package size, and product category

Abstract

The presence of food waste, and ways to reduce it, has generated significant debate among industry stakeholders, policy makers, and consumer groups around the world. Many have argued that the variety of date labels used by food manufacturers leads to confusion about food quality and food safety among consumers. Here, we develop a between-subject, laboratory experiment with different date labels (Best by, Fresh by, Sell by, and Use by) for products (ready-to-eat cereal, salad greens, and yogurt) of different sizes and dates to evaluate how date labels influence the value of premeditated food waste of subjects, or their willingness to waste (WTW). Subjects have different WTW over products, sizes, and dates; we expect that ambiguity avoidance may prompt differences in the WTW. The WTW is greatest in the "Use by" treatment, the date label which may be the least ambiguous and suggestive of food safety. The WTW is the lowest for the "Sell by" treatment, which may be the most ambiguous date label about safety or quality for the consumer. Results from the mixed-design, repeated measures ANOVA provide evidence that subjects have different WTW by date labels over products.

Examining Household Food Waste Decisions: A Vignette Approach

“…Researchers have worked to identify and understand several constructs related to food waste, including consumers' knowledge and awareness, attitudes, motivations, and behaviors. 2 Much of this work has taken place in European countries (Refsgaard and Magnussen 2009;Williams et al 2012;Stefan et al 2013;Graham-Rowe, Jessop, and Sparks 2014;Lazell 2016;Mond ejar-Jim enez et al 2016;Stancu, Haugaard, and L€ ahteenm€ aki 2016), with only a handful of studies to our knowledge examining consumers in the United States (Neff, Spiker, and Truant 2015;Qi and Roe 2016;Wilson et al 2017).…”

“…Food safety concerns are a key reason U.S. and European consumers throw out food. Namely, consumers are worried about the possibility of food poisoning, which could adversely affect both work and home responsibilities (Quested, Ingle, and Parry 2013;Graham-Rowe, Jessop, and Sparks 2014;Neff, Spiker, and Truant 2015;Qi and Roe 2016;Wilson et al 2017). This concern is often tied to confusion over label dates such as "use by", "sell by", or "best by" (Gunders 2012;Quested, Ingle, and Parry 2013;Newsome et al 2014;Wilson et al 2017).…”

“…Namely, consumers are worried about the possibility of food poisoning, which could adversely affect both work and home responsibilities (Quested, Ingle, and Parry 2013;Graham-Rowe, Jessop, and Sparks 2014;Neff, Spiker, and Truant 2015;Qi and Roe 2016;Wilson et al 2017). This concern is often tied to confusion over label dates such as "use by", "sell by", or "best by" (Gunders 2012;Quested, Ingle, and Parry 2013;Newsome et al 2014;Wilson et al 2017). Conversely, a primary motivation for reducing food waste is saving money (Quested, Ingle, and Parry 2013;Graham-Rowe, Jessop, and Sparks 2014;Neff, Spiker, and Truant 2015;Thyberg and Tonjes 2016).…”

Estimating Food Waste as Household Production Inefficiency

“…1 Another strand utilizes innovative survey and experimental methods to obtain a set of "first-hand" observations (for examples, see Stefan et al 2013;Reynolds et al 2014;Neff, Spiker, and Truant 2015;Secondi, Principato, and Laureti 2015;Qi and Roe 2016;Ellison and Lusk 2018;Roe et al 2018). These methods are extremely useful in assessing attitudes toward food waste and the effects of household-or product-specific characteristics, for example, date labels (Wilson et al 2017;Roe et al 2018). On the other hand, the accuracy of waste measures from survey data is influenced by participants' ability to effectively track and recall various wasting occasions, whereas experiments such as visual estimation, manual weighing, and digital photography are usually constrained to small-scale settings with limited application for households more generally.…”

Opportunities and Challenges in Conducting Economic Research on Food Loss and Waste

“…In this case, organizations will decide to participate only if they have determined that the benefits (e.g., revenue received for previously unsalable product; reputational benefits) exceed the costs (e.g., labor to harvest product; transportation and distribution of product; increased shelf space in stores) of participation. In contrast, a proposed regulation to require specific wording for date labels (e.g., "best if used by") on packaged products would be a mandatory requirement across the United States (Wilson et al 2017). In this case, much of the benefits may accrue to the public at large from a better understanding of how to interpret date labels while the costs of changing product labels are incurred largely by private businesses.…”