Looking for the best date code?

摘要

When it comes to food and beverage safety and waste, consumers often rely on the package's date code to help them decide whether to consume the product or not. Are date codes helping or hurting in this regard? "Best by." "Sell by." "Use by." Consumers throw away so much food that still might be safe to eat because the current date codes are confusing to them. Without a better system, they figure it's better to be safe than sorry. No one wants to get sick-or even die-from bad food or drinks, right? How can date codes on foods and beverages help improve safety and prevent waste? To find out, Packaging Digest conducted an exclusive online poll on this topic. By the time the poll had closed, 367 respondents had shared opinions and best practices on their preferred date coding phrase, favorite coding technology and production challenges, as well as potential code replacements and future changes.