Consumer Understanding of the ‘Best Before’ and ‘Use by’ Dates
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26408/122.07Keywords:
use by, best before, date labelling, consumer awareness, food wasteAbstract
The aim of the study was to evaluate the consumers’ knowledge of the concept of ‘best before’ and ‘use by’ dates, and to assess how it translates into safe and sustainable food-handling behavior in relation to a specific food and a given date type. The face-to-face interview method (N = 1145) was applied with the use of the interview questionnaire. The results showed that groups of 61.1% and 79.0% of Polish consumers who selected the correct meaning of the date had problems with food handling when they were asked about a specific food product. Consumer behavior in this regard depended on the type of product, not on the date type.
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