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hubie [soylentnews.org] writes:

In eye-tracking study, half of participants look only at date [osu.edu]:

Up to half of consumers may decide to pour perfectly good milk down the drain based solely on their glance at the date label on the carton, a new study suggests.

Researchers using eye-tracking technology found that 50% of study participants declared their intent to throw away milk based on the date stamped on the container – without ever even looking at the label phrasing in front of the date.

Each participant saw one of three phrasing options: "Sell by," "Best if used by" or "Use by" a given date, as well as containers with no label at all.

"We asked them if they intended to discard it, and if they said yes, it didn't matter which phrase was there," said senior study author Brian Roe, professor of agricultural, environment and development economics at The Ohio State University.

"As soon as we changed the printed date, that was a huge mover of whether or not they would discard or not. So we documented both where their eyes were and what they said was going to happen. And in both cases, it's all about the date, and the phrase is second fiddle."

Policymakers and industry leaders are working toward settling on a universal two-phrase system – one when quality, but not safety, is the concern, and a second phrase for items where safety may be a concern, Roe said. To date, they haven't landed on what those phrases would be.

"If you're going to have an education campaign, it helps to have a set of phrases out there that people can cling to – but in the end, so few actually look at the phrase. They look at the date," he said. "The date signifies a point after which you can expect quality to degrade. If you can get firms to push that date further out, then people are going to be willing to use the milk, or whatever it is, for a few more days, and waste a lot less food."

[...] "But we were a bit surprised that over half of the viewing sessions featured no attention on the phrase whatsoever," he said. "The date is more salient – you have to reference it against the calendar. It's more actionable than the phrase is.

"For policy reasons, it's still important to narrow the phrases down to two choices. But that's only the beginning – there needs to be a broader conversation about pushing those date horizons back to help minimize food waste."

Journal Reference:
Badiger et al. When considering whether to waste food, consumers focus attention on food label dates rather than phrases, Waste Management, 168, 2023. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2023.06.006 [doi.org]

Original Submission