You may soon no longer see expiration dates on certain foods in supermarkets. A French deputy has proposed to remove them to reduce food waste.
Why could expiration dates disappear?
We check them all before placing a product in our basket during our shopping. Expiration dates have become a part of our daily lives for many years, often dictating our consumption choices. However, Guillaume Garot, a socialist deputy known for his fight against food waste, aims to shake up our habits. His objective is to eliminate the minimum durability date (DDM) on certain products, which he considers “unnecessary” and even misleading for consumers.
This minimum durability date, present on our packaging since 1984, primarily relates to dry products such as pasta, rice, and cereals. These foods remain perfectly edible after this date. According to Guillaume Garot, DDMs unnecessarily lead French people to throw away still good food, resulting in considerable food waste.
Which products will keep their mandatory expiration date?
Note: not all products are affected by this proposal! Fresh products, such as meat, fish, and dairy products, will retain their expiration date, as it ensures the sanitary safety of consumers: “No question of touching the dates that protect people’s health”.
If this proposal is approved, it could significantly reduce food waste in France. For reference, each French citizen discards an average of 24 kilos of edible food per year, including 7 kilos that are still packaged. This removal could thus have a major impact, both ecological and economic.
Finally, note: while this measure may apply to food, it is not a matter of removing the dates on beauty products. Indeed, researchers from Nantes University have found that these products, when expired, pose real risks of allergies or eczema.
This measure could therefore radically change our shopping habits.
