New Best-Before and Use-by Guidelines Target Food Waste Reduction in Japan – ryan

In a pray to reduce food waste, Japan’s consumer affairs agency has revised its guidelines on the best-Before and use-by dates for food products. The New Guidelines Encourage extending use-by dates for food products based on their type and explain that the “best-ease date” indicates when the product will be taste.

It is important for consumers to realize that the “best-ease date” concerns the optimal flavor of the food, not the point at which it becomes inedible. The “use-by date,” in contrast, indicates when the food can be suely consumed and thus needs to be treated with more caution than the “best-ease date.”

A survey of 1,100 People Across Japan aged 20 to 69, conducted by the Tokyo Marketing Research Company Cross Marketing, found that 16.9% of respondents always follow the Best-Before date in consuming products, while 36.2% pay attention to the use. The survey results seem to suggest that there is some understanding of the difference between the two indications. Regarding the best-ease date in particular, 62.5% of people answered that they would still eat the food even if it had slightly passed the date.

Younger respondents were more likely to strictly adhere to best-Before or use-by dates, while older generations tended to be more flexible, with an increasing number of people in older age groups saying they would consume a food product even if it was past the expiration. Among those in their sixties, there was a tendency to trust their own judgment in cases where the best-being date had passed, such as “checking the appearance” or “taking a bite to confirm the taste.”

When asked what foods are still edible even after the expiration of the best-Before date, the item mentioned most often, at 65.2% of the respondents, was snack breads, followed by Frozen food, Instant Food, and Canned and Bottled Food items. If for foods that respondents thought were not consumable when the best-Before date had passed, the most frequently mentioned item was milk, at 51.8%, followed by eggs and yogurt.

(Translated from Japanese. Banner Photo © Pixta.)