Published on
Updated
Reading 1 min.
To fight against massive food waste in France and make it easier for consumers to understand, expiry date labels will be modified.
Many French people throw away food products whose minimum durability date has passed… even though they are perfectly edible. Blame it on the labels, which lack clarity. To fight against this scourge, the government has decided to modify the expiry labels.
Date of minimum durability: what will change
Concretely, two sentences will be added next to the DDM (date of minimum durability): “for optimal tasting” and “this product can be consumed after this date“.
The aim is to remind consumers of the difference between the use-by date – which applies to all perishable fresh products that may pose health risks – and the minimum durability date – which means that the food in question loses its organoleptic properties (taste, texture, color) but presents no health risks.
This difference is crucial because products displaying an MDD (pasta, rice, preserves, etc.) can be consumed long after the date.
The objective of these changes is of course to fight against food waste – which in France represents 10 million tonnes of products per year, or 16 billion euros.
NO to diets, YES to WW!
What to do if a food seems expired?
If in doubt about a product, Clémentine Lindon, external relations manager at Too Good To Go, reminds us that it is important “to trust their senses, such as sight, smell and touch, to recognize an expired product or not“.