SINGAPORE – Standardising “use by” and “best before” date labels for food could result in additional costs and compliance burden for food manufacturers, and impact how Singapore imports food, especially as over 90 per cent of it is from abroad.
Instead, consumers should take both labels to mean that food is unlikely to be fit for consumption after the dates indicated on the labels, said Dr Koh Poh Koon, Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment, in Parliament on Feb 7.
He was responding to a parliamentary question by Ms He Ting Ru (Sengkang GRC) on whether the Government will consider updating and standardising “use by” and “best before” date labels for food to reduce confusion over whether food needs to be disposed of for safety reasons, and to reduce food waste.
According to the Singapore Food Agency (SFA), “use by” dates are for highly perishable foods such as milk and yoghurt. Consumers are advised not to consume these foods after the date stated on the label.
“Best before” dates are for foods with a longer shelf life such as cereal. They indicate how long the foods will be at their best quality.
Dr Koh said both “use by” and “best before” are internationally accepted terms under the Codex General Standard for Labelling of Prepackaged Foods, and are commonly used by food manufacturers both locally and overseas.
The Codex Alimentarius Commission, or Codex, was established by the World Health Organisation and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations to develop international food standards to protect consumer health and to ensure fair practices in the food trade.
The standard for labelling of pre-packaged food was among the first to be adopted.
Singapore imports more than 90 per cent of the food it needs from some 170 countries and regions.
Among these are countries such as China, Thailand and South Korea, which do not comply with Codex standards but have a different way of labelling expiry dates.
This means that Singapore has a mix of different labels in its market system.
Other than “use by” and “best before”, other labels include “expiry date” and “sell by”. It is illegal to sell food that has passed these dates, according to SFA’s website.
“Standardising the use of date marks to a specific term will require the industry to tailor the packaging to the Singapore market, adding to compliance burden. This may result in additional packaging costs, which the industry can pass on to consumers,” said Dr Koh.
“Given the small size of our Singapore market overseas, food manufacturers may also choose not to change their packaging to meet Singapore’s requirements. This could inadvertently then reduce our food import sources,” he added.
Dr Koh said under current food regulations, “use by” and “best before” are both used to indicate the expiry date of food products, beyond which they are not permitted to be sold in Singapore due to possible deterioration in food quality.
He also said that applying a standardised “use by” and “best before” date is not the same as having a “Healthier Choice” label, for example.
“If a particular food produce is deemed to be perhaps not as healthy as it should be, and (food manufacturers) refuse to comply – and therefore cannot enter our market – that does not necessarily always restrict our choices.
“But for a particular label, like ‘expiry date’ that is quite broad and pervasive across many, many pre-packaged food types, to stipulate one particular date-mark label may severely restrict the choices of available food we have for import, and therefore threaten our food security and food resilience,” said Dr Koh.
On the other hand, if standardising “use by” and “best before” labels is made a mandatory requirement, overseas manufacturers may deem it too onerous for a small market like Singapore, and may not want to export food products to Singapore, impacting food availability in the country, Dr Koh added.
He said consumers should apply common sense too, as food can still go bad if improperly stored, even if the “use by” date is still valid.
“Ms He buys a package of milk today that has a ‘use by’ date a week from now, but she leaves it in her car in the hot sun for a whole day. Regardless of what the ‘use by’ date is, the milk may not be fit for consumption the next day,” he said.
