Canadians often blame grocery stores, food manufacturers or governments for food waste. Yet much of the waste occurs in our own kitchens, often for one simple reason: We misunderstand food date labels.
New survey data from the Agri-Food Analytics Lab in partnership with Caddle, based on responses from 3,000 Canadians, reveal that the vast majority of households continue to throw away food once it passes its use-by date. While only 11% of Canadians said they always discard food after the date has passed, another 20% do so often and 37% do so sometimes. In other words, nearly seven in 10 Canadians allow date labels to influence their decision to dispose of food.
