Food dating

Nope, this is not about going out to dinner with the hunk du jour. It's about those troublesome expiration/use by dates on food packages. Imagine my surprise to read this:

Frequently Asked Questions About Food Dates and Storage

Q: Should all food containers have dates on them?

A: There is no uniform system for food dating in the United States. Except for infant formula and some baby food, product dating is not required by federal regulations. Dating of foods is only required by about 20 states right now. Federal regulations do say, however, if a calendar date is used, it must express both the month and the day of the month. In the case of shelf-stable and frozen products, the calendar date, if used, must also include the year. If this calendar is used, there must also be a phrase next to it explaining the meaning of the date, such as �sell by� or �use before.�

Dates found on foods may be �open dating� or �closed� or coded dating. Open dating is the use of a calendar date that the consumer can understand. In general, open dating is found primarily on perishable foods such as meat, poultry, eggs and dairy products. Closed or coded dates might appear on shelf-stable foods such as cans, boxes, bags, etc.

This comes from a University of Georgia web page dated simply "2005." It could be out of date, but I'm cynical enough to believe that it is not. And that annoys me. There are some regulations that might go to far, but I'm pretty much pro-regulation when it comes to food safety. Expiration dates and such are pretty important when deciding what to buy and when to eat it. This is something that I feel strongly enough about that I'm headed over to change.gov to make a recommendation that there ought to be federal standards to the effect that:

• all processed or packaged foods intended for human consumption should have an expiration or use by date, and
• the date should be written as a calendar date that includes month and year in a format easily understood by consumers.

Join me if you wish. Of course, change.gov is the easy way to voice an opinion on the subject. I have not yet discovered that Texas is one of the 20 states that require food expiration dates on products manufactured or sold within the state, so it might not be a bad idea to tell your Texas Representative and Senator about this (if you wish). And then there's your congresscritters (one rep and two senators).

UPDATE: And here's the comment on change.gov. There's already a discussion!