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When it comes to labels on food, there's no agreed upon wording to let consumers know when to toss packaged grocery items. Public confusion over how long they can keep and safely eat products is part of the reason Americans throw away roughly a third of their food -- about $161 billion worth -- each year.
Compounding the uncertainty for consumers about when to toss food is the array of descriptions producers use to signal a product's shelf life. Those include "use by," "sell by," "freeze by," "best if used before" and "expires on," leaving the public unclear on the safety of products and causing lots of perfectly fine food to get tossed.
[...] Looking to stem the tide of still-edible food that ends of in landfills, the FDA is backing a voluntary industry effort to standardize the "best if used by" wording on packaged food, saying it should curb consumer confusion thought to contribute to about 20% of food wasted in U.S. homes.
[...] Still, the FDA's guidance may not go far in clearing up the public's misunderstanding about labels, observers said. For one, the labeling only applies to food quality, not its safety.
[...] The [Grocery Manufacturers Association] and the Food Marketing Institute in January 2017 recommended making the phrase uniform, along with use of the "use by" phrase to indicate when food should no longer be eaten for safety reasons. In a letter to the food industry, the FDA said it would not address the latter phrase "at this time."
Predicting when food is past its prime is an inexact science, according to Kevin Smith, senior advisor for food safety in the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. He said consumers should regularly examine food in their kitchen cabinets or pantries that have passed their "best if used by" dates, and throw out if they've noticeably changed in color, consistency or texture.
"Food is much safer than it was a few decades ago, largely because of refrigeration and dramatically improved manufacturing processes. But to really address the problem with food waste, the FDA should tell people something more meaningful than open it, look at it, smell it, and if it seems OK, eat away, otherwise, toss," Steinzor added.
The FDA should instead define when foods become risky to eat based on shelf life and require those dates be disclosed, she said.
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Saturday May 25 2019, @03:43PM (4 children)
Did you know you're not supposed to defrost in room temperature? And when you thaw them out in the fridge, you're supposed to do it in cold water? That's what the minimal cooking temperatures were set against:
( https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/food-safety-education/get-answers/food-safety-fact-sheets/foodborne-illness-and-disease/salmonella-questions-and-answers/ [usda.gov] )
Live (or not) and learn (or not) I guess.
compiling...
(Score: 4, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Saturday May 25 2019, @04:14PM (3 children)
I think you're reading that incorrectly. Allow me to FTFY:
The insertion of the word "or" helps to make sense of that advice. Frozen food can be stored pretty much indefinitely. Thawing food can be safely stored for about three days in the refrigerator. Thawing food can be safely stored for many hours, in cold water, which is roughly the same temp as your refrigerator. The danger with thawing food at room temperature is, the outer layers of that frozen food reach room temperature long before the center. The organisms that cause food-borne illnesses proliferate at room temperature, so you only want to keep that food around for about three hours.
Long story short - never thaw your turkey overnight by sitting it on the kitchen counter.
(Score: 3, Informative) by RamiK on Sunday May 26 2019, @12:22AM (2 children)
I've quoted the full passage precisely because the three sentences combined give an unexpectedly complex procedure:
Ok, so, the water should be cold... Throughout the defrosting... So, I should be either defrosting in a refrigerator+water or constantly replace water.
Confirmed. I shouldn't let the water warm up.
More so, I must immediately cook it after thawing.
The cold water procedure is also explained here confirming this: https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/food-safety-education/get-answers/food-safety-fact-sheets/safe-food-handling/the-big-thaw-safe-defrosting-methods-for-consumers [usda.gov]
Weird, ha?
compiling...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 28 2019, @05:43PM (1 child)
You have failed to understand the standard usage of the English language as it handles serialized lists. The final modifier is implied for each entry separation, thus:
Thaw food in the refrigerator, in cold water, or in the microwave.
can be re-written accurately as:
Thaw food in the refrigerator or in cold water or in the microwave.
and because of implied articles would carry the same meaning as the first version or:
Thaw food in the refrigerator, cold water, or the microwave.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 30 2019, @08:31PM
Oxford comma...