Consumers' knowledge of date labelling and the influence thereof on household fresh produce waste practices in Gauteng

Abstract

Globally, it is estimated that one-third of the food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted, which amounts to a concerning 1.3 billion tons per year (FAO, 2011). More concerning is the fact that much of the wastage is unnecessary because consumers often misinterpret product attributes such as date labels (i.e. sell-by; use-by and expiry-date), which they often rely on as a primary indication of product quality and/or safety. This tendency often leads to premature discarding/wastage of food products such as fresh produce. The problem is further exacerbated as current retail procedures and policies determining the date labelling on food products such as fresh produce are seldom regulated and also contribute towards food losses and wastage in the pre-and post-consumption stages. In order to reduce the current levels of food waste, it is imperative that improvements are made not only at household level, but in all stages of the supply chain, thus from farm to fork. This study first and foremost aimed to explore consumers’ current fresh produce waste practices in order to investigate date labelling as a pertinent reason for unnecessary fresh produce wastage. The study secondly aimed to explore consumers’ knowledge of fresh produce date labelling (in terms of subjective and objective knowledge dimensions), i.e. their understanding and interpretation of date labelling, not only in order to describe consumers’ current fresh produce wastage practices, but also to propose mitigating strategies. The Systems Theory was found appropriate and therefore used to guide discussions as it enabled the researcher to understand the sequence, relationship and interdependency of fundamental elements that influence fresh produce wastage. Data collection was executed in two phases. An electronic questionnaire was implemented to gather data pertaining to Phase 1. Data collection for Phase 2 relied on focus group discussions. The respondents were recruited across Gauteng using a convenience sampling technique. The overall findings regarding consumers’ food wastage revealed that fresh produce is indeed the product category wasted the most, particularly vegetables, with respondents indicating that of all fresh produce purchased per month, an estimate of 41.24% is wasted. In terms of consumers’ knowledge of date labelling, the results revealed that consumers might be somewhat overly confident (subjective knowledge). Many consumers eagerly noted that they knew enough about date labelling in order to make wise consumer decisions, but failed to present that knowledge when tested objectively. The results from the focus group discussions supported these findings and emphasised the fact that confusion in terms of Date Labelling Theory, i.e. the difference between the dimensions of date labelling (i.e. sell-by, use-by and best-before dates) is mostly the reason for misinterpretation and subsequent produce wastage. In terms of the main barriers that hinder more sustainable consumption, the results indicated that although poor planning and purchasing ranked as the most worrisome, date labelling still featured amongst the top five reasons for wastage. Possible avenues to mitigate consumers’ misinterpretation of date labelling and fresh produce wastage included: 1. Making use of an app that alerts users, 2. Removing sell by dates, and 3. Getting more support from the South African government through education and awareness campaigns. Whilst several studies have been done on household food waste practices, few have studied consumers’ subjective and objective knowledge dimensions on date labelling. To the researchers’ knowledge, this is the first paper exploring consumer date labelling knowledge and the impact it has on household fresh produce wastage practices in Gauteng. By assessing the reasons for wastage, greater insight is gained with regard to presenting possible avenues that could mitigate fresh produce wastage.