Abstract This study draws inferences from a pre-registered field experiment to investigate how expiration dates impact consumer preferences for food products with different ages. Based on a power analysis, we recruited 373 adult participants for the experiment. The results demonstrate that expiration dates largely influenced the perceived freshness of a food product as they seem to indicate a quality standard. When no explicit expiration date was present, consumers believed that the product’s quality decreased monotonically as time passed. However, in the presence of an expiration-date label, consumers initially perceived the product as more acceptable, but then that perception changed quickly after the date of expiration to levels more consistent with what they would perceive if the expiration date was not present. These results support policies that label expiration dates for consumers, as these labels benefit consumers, producers, and the public, especially for times prior to the expiration date. These results also suggest that it is important to craft policy and market strategies for products that are past the expiration date, but are still safe to consume. Policies that set the expiration dates to the time where the taste quality begins to worsen would likely benefit both consumers and producers, while policies that set the expiration dates to the time where the food is no longer safe probably improve the public outcomes as it minimizes food waste.

中文翻译：

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有效期标签对易腐产品享乐市场的影响

摘要 本研究从预先注册的现场实验中得出推论，以调查保质期如何影响消费者对不同年龄的食品的偏好。根据功效分析，我们招募了 373 名成年参与者进行实验。结果表明，保质期在很大程度上影响了食品的感知新鲜度，因为它们似乎表明了质量标准。当没有明确的保质期时，消费者认为产品的质量会随着时间的推移而单调下降。然而，在有有效期标签的情况下，消费者最初认为该产品更容易接受，但在有效期过后，这种看法迅速转变为与他们在不存在有效期时的看法更加一致的水平。这些结果支持为消费者标记到期日期的政策，因为这些标签有利于消费者、生产者和公众，尤其是在到期日期之前的时间。这些结果还表明，为过期但仍可安全消费的产品制定政策和市场策略很重要。将保质期设置为味道质量开始恶化的时间的政策可能对消费者和生产者都有利，而将保质期设置为食品不再安全的时间的政策可能会改善公共结果，因为它最大限度地减少了食品浪费。这些结果还表明，为过期但仍可安全消费的产品制定政策和市场策略很重要。将保质期设置为味道质量开始恶化的时间的政策可能对消费者和生产者都有利，而将保质期设置为食品不再安全的时间的政策可能会改善公共结果，因为它最大限度地减少了食品浪费。这些结果还表明，为过期但仍可安全消费的产品制定政策和市场策略很重要。将保质期设置为味道质量开始恶化的时间的政策可能对消费者和生产者都有利，而将保质期设置为食品不再安全的时间的政策可能会改善公共结果，因为它最大限度地减少了食品浪费。