Consumers often throw away meat that is still safe to eat based on the “sell by” date. Auburn University researchers are investigating methods to predict meat spoilage based on microbial activity, which would enable more accurate “sell by” dates.
Recently signed into law, California Assembly Bill 660 standardizes the use of “Best if Used By” and “Use By” dates on food labels, and prohibits the use of “Sell By” and other, inconsistently used dates.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has developed a decision tree of 10 questions to help food firms decide what information to give consumers besides use-by or best-before dates to ensure food safety.
