How We Can Save Good Food With Changes to Best Before Dates

In Canada, nearly a quarter of avoidable food waste that occurs between processing and purchase is driven by date coding practices.  

That means around 1.6 million metric tonnes — or $12.37 billion worth of safe and edible food — either doesn’t make it to a grocery store shelf or is pulled too soon.

Second Harvest’s recently published “Date Coding and Food Waste Research Report” looked at how Canadian date coding regulations contribute to waste, assessing how the country compares to its peers and made recommendations to improve food labelling and waste reduction policies.

What is date coding?

Introduced by regulators in 1976, date codes were designed to help consumers understand how long products with shorter shelf lives, like dairy and fresh baked goods, would maintain their peak freshness, taste and nutritional value. Date coding is regulated by Health Canada and enforced by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency under federal food laws.

• Prepackaged foods that last 90 days or less are required to have a best before date.
• Foods that last longer than 90 days are not required to have one.  

Over the last several decades, the use of date codes has expanded to include most food and beverage products sold in Canada.

Separate from a best before date, a limited number of products are required to have an expiration date, which tell you when a product may no longer be safe to consume. These appear only on five specialized food types: meal replacements, nutritional supplements, infant formula, formulated liquid diets and foods for low-calorie diets. They do not appear on most everyday groceries.

Where the confusion lies

Best before dates are about quality, not safety. However, studies show that consumers tend to treat them as expiration dates, or dates by which products should be consumed or else thrown away.  

The bad news is that this confusion leads to unnecessary waste across the supply chain.

The good news is that countries that have made changes to their date labelling practices have seen success in reducing food waste both at home and across the food system, helping keep more good food in circulation.

Success stories from across the globe

Second Harvest’s date coding research compared how California, Australia, the UK, the EU, Nordic countries, South Korea and Japan made changes to date coding in an effort to reduce waste.

While they all have taken slightly different approaches, several common themes emerge from their success.

Date coding as a food-policy tool

The research showed that making changes to date coding works best when the changes are built into a broader food waste policy.  

Australia is a strong example because its National Food Waste Strategy explicitly identifies confusion over date labels as a cause of household waste. The UK also shows this approach through national guidance and policy support around date labelling.  

The EU and Nordic countries similarly treat date coding as part of a wider food waste reduction framework, while Italy shows that food waste policy can go beyond labels by pairing donation incentives with industry coordination.

Less regulation for less-perishable products

Another clear trend is that countries are reducing the use of date coding when it is not related to food safety, given how of it is misunderstood by consumers.  

South Korea has moved away from overly cautious “best before” dates and toward “use by” dates that better reflect actual shelf life. Retailers in the UK can voluntarily remove “best before” labels on certain products.

Clearer separation of safety and quality

The strongest international examples show that consumers benefit when labels clearly distinguish between food safety and food quality.

The UK, Australia, the EU and Nordic countries all use systems that separate “use by” labels for safety from “best before” labels for quality. This makes it easier for people to understand when food is truly unsafe versus simply past peak freshness. That clarity is effective because it reduces unnecessary disposal in homes and stores, while giving consumers more confidence in the food they buy and keep.  

We know from our peers that changes in date coding works best when as part of a coordinated strategy, not a standalone label tweak.  

With a modernized approach and national strategy, Canada can achieve the same: clearer date codes, more confident consumers and millions of pounds of safe food being kept on plates and out of landfills.

You can join Second Harvest in calling on the Canadian government to take action on this issue right now.  

Send a letter to your Member of Parliament and urge them to make food waste reduction a core part of Canada’s National Food Security Strategy.

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