Experts are calling for New Zealand to ditch the "best before" labels on food packaging as a way to reduce "avoidable, unnecessary" food waste heading to landfill.
Part of the issue is "best before" labels on product packaging, which is generally added by the manufacturer as a guideline for quality, taste and freshness, rather than a "use by" date which is about food safety.
Each year food waste costs New Zealand $3.2 billion, tossing an estimated 100,000 tonnes and there are calls to follow the lead of the UK where large supermarkets such as Asda, Tesco and Sainsbury's scrap the "best before" sticker.
Kate Fenwick from Love Food Hate Waste told Breakfast that people must pay attention to the "use by" date as it’s a food safety date, but said "best before"’ could be left off “a lot of things”.
"I think we see a little date on there and it makes us think, 'oh that’s done now'," she said.
"You can have a bag of lettuce on the shelf with a date on it, a bagged lettuce heart, and a lettuce that's just wrapped in lettuce, and two have dates on it and one doesn't," said Fenwick.
Fenwick said consumers have lost the ability to consider for themselves whether something is still good, instead being informed by a label.
"There were three massive crates of potatoes in plastic bags that were all perfectly fine, but they’d been donated to the food bank because of the best before dates. They couldn't sell them because they were close to the date.
"I said, 'why don't you take the potatoes out and check them and sure throw away the off bad one, but the rest are perfectly fine'.
"It's leading to a lot of avoidable, unnecessary food waste," she said.
Presenter Anna Burns-Francis asked about the science behind expiry dates, and whether we should be concerned about health risks. Fenwick said she thinks there are “too many rules”.
"There is some science around, especially making sure food is safe. If you’re cooking on a surface, you don’t want it to be filthy. Particularly in summertime, we’ve got to be aware of the heat and flies and things, so you do have to look after your food and refrigerate it," she said.
Fenwick said most products will be "perfectly fine" for days or even weeks after the best before date suggests, particularly dried goods such as pasta.
"The best before is even on toilet paper for goodness's sake, and toilet paper is never going to go off so why they put a date on there I don’t know," she laughed.
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