Abstract Food date labels are commonly used by the food industry despite not being well understood by consumers. Consumers may mistakenly believe that food label dates are meant to convey information about a food's safety, but in many instances label dates are set by the food producer to indicate quality or freshness. Label date confusion may, therefore, contribute to household food waste, a growing social, economic, and environmental problem. Limited research has examined the impact food date labels may have on consumer food waste. The objective of this research was to determine consumer knowledge regarding three common food date labels and their meanings, and whether knowledge was related to food waste behaviors. An online survey of 1042 adults in the U.S. determined their use and knowledge of food date labels as well as their propensity to waste food as defined by disposing of food which would likely still be safe for consumption. The majority of respondents (81.6%) reported using food date labels. Only 57.4%, however, correctly identified what “best by, use by” meant, while 68.1% and 79.7% correctly identified the definitions of “expiration date” and “sell by date”, respectively. Respondents who correctly defined “best buy, use by” were less likely to throw food away if it had passed its “use by” date or was a shelf stable food without a visible date and were more likely to identify the “expiration date” as the only reason to throw away a food. The findings indicate that consumer education around the least understood food date label, “best by, use by” may help to reduce consumer food waste.

中文翻译：

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消费者关于食品日期标签和食品浪费的知识和行为

摘要 食品日期标签虽然未被消费者充分理解，但仍被食品行业普遍使用。消费者可能会错误地认为食品标签日期旨在传达有关食品安全的信息，但在许多情况下，标签日期是由食品生产商设定的，以表明质量或新鲜度。因此，标签日期混淆可能会导致家庭食物浪费，这是一个日益严重的社会、经济和环境问题。有限的研究调查了食品日期标签对消费者食物浪费的影响。本研究的目的是确定消费者对三种常见食品日期标签及其含义的了解，以及这些知识是否与食物浪费行为有关。对美国 1042 名成年人的在线调查 确定他们对食品日期标签的使用和了解，以及他们浪费食品的倾向，这是通过处理可能仍然可以安全食用的食品来定义的。大多数受访者 (81.6%) 报告使用食品日期标签。然而，只有 57.4% 的人正确识别了“最佳使用期限”的含义，而 68.1% 和 79.7% 分别正确识别了“到期日期”和“按日期销售”的定义。正确定义“最佳购买、使用期限”的受访者不太可能丢弃已经超过“使用期限”的食品，或者是没有可见日期的货架稳定食品，并且更有可能将“保质期”确定为扔掉食物的唯一理由。调查结果表明，围绕最不了解的食品日期标签“最佳食用日期”进行消费者教育可能有助于减少消费者食物浪费。