Date labels on food packaging sow consumer confusion and waste

Re:Date labels on food packaging sow consumer confusion and ... by asveikau on Sunday September 01, 2019 @10:00PM (#20856247)

I feel like car culture and suburbs create some of this.

When I used to spend time in the suburbs I witnessed people filling large cars with groceries to last for weeks. It is hard to estimate in advance what you will actually use working that way.

I prefer to live walking distance from grocers and go every day to buy a small amount of ingredients. I often still end up with leftovers, but I am pretty conscientious about using them before they go bad and before buying more.

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Re:Date labels on food packaging sow consumer confusion and ... by TeMPOraL on Sunday September 01, 2019 @10:41PM (#20856400)

You're probably spending much more money and time doing it this way. There's a middle ground between just-in-time purchasing and stocking up for a zombie apocalypse. It's not that hard to estimate how much you use in a week, and buy a week's worth of groceries at a time. Saves time, saves money, and the amount of food isn't so large you can't keep track of it anymore.

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Re:Date labels on food packaging sow consumer confusion and ... by asveikau on Sunday September 01, 2019 @11:05PM (#20856494)

I'm shut out of savings-heavy options like Costco by buying this way, but I don't know about the rest of your assertion. Especially when you consider, eg., that I use my various walks to the grocer in place of where somebody else might use a gym membership. Things like this keep me physically active.

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Re:Date labels on food packaging sow consumer confusion and ... by cameronbrown on Monday September 02, 2019 @07:41AM (#20858470)

Is walking really that efficient compared to a gym membership though? An hour in the gym is equivalent to a lot more walking.

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Re:Date labels on food packaging sow consumer confusion and ... by freeflight on Monday September 02, 2019 @07:52AM (#20858518)

An hour in the gym is also an hour in the gym, while walking to the grocer serves not just fitness but also takes care of getting groceries.

You also save the money on gas/less wear on the car/gym membership.

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Re:Date labels on food packaging sow consumer confusion and ... by asveikau on Monday September 02, 2019 @11:34AM (#20859717)

I've never had a gym membership so I can't tell you what results I would have with that. However, I did once achieve 100 lbs of weight loss over 18 months where my primary exercise was walking.

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Re:Date labels on food packaging sow consumer confusion and ... by cameronbrown on Monday September 02, 2019 @01:07PM (#20860424)

Did this include dietary change?

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Re:Date labels on food packaging sow consumer confusion and ... by asveikau on Monday September 02, 2019 @02:55PM (#20861105)

Reduction in portion sizes, but no major change in items consumed. Biggest staple of my diet is pasta. High carb, high fat, lots of walking keeps me at normal BMI.

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Re:Date labels on food packaging sow consumer confusion and ... by userbinator on Sunday September 01, 2019 @10:14PM (#20856304)

I grew up in the suburbs, with a large car (and I still have one), so I doubt that's the only big factor; it's probably more related to people with a "this is cheap/sale, so I'll buy tons of it" attitude without thinking about the rate at which they'll use it, what they already have, and how long they can store it for.

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