Food Expiration Dates: New Harvard Study Suggests Changes to Food Dating, Stop US Food Waste

Food expiration dates - I know I check the expiration dates on all my food packaging, how about you?

Not that I always respect that date; for example, “sell by” to me doesn’t mean much if I brought something home and immediately tossed it in the freezer. (Which is a great thing to do, by the way: buy something on sale, then freeze it until you’re ready to use it.)

Harvard University Study Reports Americans Waste 160 Billion Pounds of Food Every Year 

 A new research study has been published by Harvard University’s Food Law and Policy Clinic and the Natural Resources Defense Council, entitled “The Dating Game: How Confusing Food Date Labels Lead to Food Waste in America.” (Click on the link to read the entire study online for free.)

 According to this new study, “[a]n estimated 40 percent of food in the United States goes uneaten,1 and according to even the most conservative estimates, Americans waste 160 billion pounds of food each year.” 

That is a heck of a lot of food  -- and a shameful amount of waste.

One of the big problems, according to these researchers? Food dating.

 Expiration dates on food in the United States are causing lots of good food to go to waste.

They are suggesting that lots of this waste could be stopped if the Food Dating system in the United States was standardized across various food industries as well as making the food labels we all read much easier to understand.

I agree. Making those food dates easier to understand would be a great thing. (Remember how you used to be able to figure out how fresh a loaf of bread was by the color-coded tag? No more; you can’t count on the color to tell you anything much any more.)

 For instance, the Harvard Study reveals that there’s nothing unsafe about food that is past the “sell by” food date — that date doesn’t have anything to do with the safety of the food itself; it’s an inventory control date for the store to control what’s on its shelves. Wow.

And, here’s a biggie: eating something well before the “sell by” food date doesn’t inherently mean that it’s all fresh, and good, and safe for you to eat. Nope. Things like how it was stored are a big factor here.

What about the “use by” food date code? The “use by” food date does not give you dependable information on how microbiologically sound that food product may be — that’s dependent on how the product has been manufactured, distributed, and stored for you.

Not All Food Is the Same: Food Dating Systems Should Reflect Ready-to-Eat Versus To-Be-Prepared 

Another big factor here: not all food is the same and they’re not suggesting that there not be universal one-size fits all food dating. Refrigerated ready-to-eat food is more risky for bacteria, for example, than something you have to bring home and cook. Why? The heat may kill dangerous bacteria in the food that the ready-to-eat item might share, but it’s not going to get zapped by heat before you eat it.

There’s lots more in the study. It’s worth your time to read. Now, I’m going to go get a snack.

Dog Joint Pain or Dog Arthritis - This Pill Has Given My Dog His Fun Life Back: Hooray for Osteo Pet Joint Care!

Right off the bat, I want you to know that I'm not getting paid anything to write about this product, not a single penny.  Osteo-Pet isn't sending me any freebies, either - they don't even know I exist.

I just want to share with you, Dear Reader, how much these supplements have changed my dog's life (and therefore, my life) for the better.

Let's go back to May.  Middle of the month, and my boy dog (born in 2002) was moving slow and not running around in the yard any longer.  Didn't like to get up and move around, panting more that he used to do.  Stiff back legs when he awoke in the morning.

His ball - his very, VERY favorite toy, lay on his bed but he never brought it to me any longer, asking to go play fetch and catch.

Then, the WORST thing happened.  That night, he couldn't jump on the bed.  Now, this pup has slept on the bed with me every night (except for a handful of times) since he was born.  Every night.  Heck, he thinks it's his bed and he's gracious enough to share it with me.

But he just couldn't do it.  And he wouldn't let me lift him.  You cannot know (or maybe you can, if you've gone through this too) how devastating this was - for both of us.  I cried and cried, thinking how it was a sign that I was going to lose him sooner rather than later.  I cried even harder because I could not figure out how to make him feel better.

Then I went to the internet.  That night.  Thank you God for the WEB!

The next day, thanks to Amazon, we began our Osteo-Pet Joint Care regimen.  Reviews explained that it would be a slow process, and it was.  But things began to get better in a couple of weeks.

And now, here we are in the first week of October.  Dear Reader, he's back to chasing SQUIRRELS in the back yard, he's bouncing up to start the day, he's playing ball and more.  He was doing lots of this by August, but he seems to be even more peppy and energetic and, well, happy, now.  (And if you don't know a happy dog from a sad one, you don't know dogs.)

It's amazing.  It's wonderful.  It's a blessing and an answered prayer.

His fur is thicker than it's ever been, he's got a great appetite, his face is one big smile all the time, and he jumps up on the bed now in the middle of the day, bouncing around a bit, just to show everyone that he CAN, goshdarnit!

I know that my boy may have another chapter where he can't jump up on the bed again.  I know that he's a "senior dog" and this isn't a miracle cure for aging.

But Osteo Pet Joint Care has given him a new lease on life and I'm so very grateful.  I thought I'd share with you, Dear Reader, because maybe our story will help another older, wonderful dog in pain, too.

Read my Amazon review here.

P.S. This is all the more joyous for me considering how I lost my beloved Molly in 2004, where in October she was given Rimadyl by the vet for joint pain, an otherwise healthy dog, and by March she was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer (which the vet had told me in October was a "possible side effect but it's a quality of life decision").  Never saw much help for Molly from it, either.  Do your own web research on Rimadyl, I'm still angry about what happened.  Wish I'd known about Osteo Pet Joint Care back then.