Open Dating of Foods

236 Pages·2005·3.053 MB·English

by  Theodore P. Labuza, Lynn M. Szybist(auth.)

OPEN DATING
OF
FOODS
F
N
PUBLICATIONS IN
P
FOOD SCIENCE AND NUTRITION
Books
OPEN DATING OF FOODS, T.P. Labuza and L.M. Szybist
NITRITE CURING OF MEAT: N-NITROSAMINE PROBLEM, R.B. Pegg and F. Shahidi
DICTIONARY OF FLAVORS, D.A. DeRovira
FOOD SAFETY: THE IMPLICATIONS OF CHANGE, J.J. Sheridan et al.
FOOD FOR HEALTH IN THE PACIFIC RIM, J.R. Whitaker et al.
DAIRY FOODS SAFETY: 1995-1996, A COMPENDIUM, E.H. Marth
OLIVE OIL, SECOND EDITION, A.K. Kiritsakis
MULTIVARIATE DATA ANALYSIS, G.B. Dijksterhuis
NUTRACEUTICALS: DESIGNER FOODS 111, P.A. Lachance
DESCRIPTIVE SENSORY ANALYSIS IN PRACTICE, M.C. Gacula, Jr.
APPETITE FOR LIFE: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY, S.A. Goldblith
HACCP: MICROBIOLOGICAL SAFETY OF MEAT, J.J. Sheridan et al.
OF MICROBES AND MOLECULES: FOOD TECHNOLOGY AT M.I.T.. S.A. Goldblith
MEAT PRESERVATION, R.G. Cassens
S.C. PRESCOTT, PIONEER FOOD TECHNOLOGIST, S.A. Goldblith
FOOD CONCEPTS AND PRODUCTS: JUST-IN-TIME DEVELOPMENT, H.R. Moskowitz
MICROWAVE FOODS: NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT, R.V. Decareau
DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF SENSORY OPTIMIZATION, M.C. Gacula, Jr.
NUTRIENT ADDITIONS TO FOOD, J.C. Bauernfeind and P.A. Lachance
NITRITE-CURED MEAT, R.G. Cassens
POTENTIAL FOR NUTRITIONAL MODULATION OF AGING, D.K. Ingram et al.
CONTROLLEDlMODIFIED ATMOSPHERENACUUM PACKAGING, A.L. Brody
NUTRITIONAL STATUS ASSESSMENT OF THE INDIVIDUAL, G.E. Livingston
QUALITY ASSURANCE OF FOODS, J.E. Stauffer
SCIENCE OF MEAT & MEAT PRODUCTS, 3RD ED., J.F. Price and B.S. Schweigert
ROLE OF CHEMISTRY IN PROCESSED FOODS, O.R. Fennema et al.
NEW DIRECTIONS FOR PRODUCT TESTING OF FOODS, H.R. Moskowitz
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT & DIETARY GUIDELINES, G.E. Livingston, et al.
SHELF-LIFE DATING OF FOODS, T.P. Labuza
ANTINUTRIENTS AND NATURAL TOXICANTS IN FOOD, R.L. Ory
POSTHARVEST BIOLOGY AND BIOTECHNOLOGY, H.O. Hultin and M. Milner
Journals
JOURNAL OF FOOD LIPIDS, F. Shahidi
JOURNAL OF RAPID METHODS AND AUTOMATION IN MICROBIOLOGY,
D.Y.C. Fung and M.C. Goldschmidt
JOURNAL OF MUSCLE FOODS, N.G. Marriott and G.J. Flick, Jr.
JOURNAL OF SENSORY STUDIES, M.C. Gacula, Jr.
FOODSERVICE RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL, C.A. Sawyer
JOURNAL OF FOOD BIOCHEMISTRY, N.F. Haard and B.K. Simpson
JOURNAL OF FOOD PROCESS ENGINEERING, D.R. Heldman and R.P. Singh
JOURNAL OF FOOD PROCESSING AND PRESERVATION, B.G. Swanson
JOURNAL OF FOOD QUALITY, J.J. Powers
JOURNAL OF FOOD SAFETY, T.J. Montville and D.C. Hoover
JOURNAL OF TEXTURE STUDIES, M.C. Bourne, T. van Vliet and V.N.M. Rao
Newsletter
FOOD, NUTRACEUTICALS AND NUTRITION, P.A. Lachance and M.C. Fisher
OPEN DATING
OF
FOODS
THEODORE P. LABUZA, Ph.D.
Department of Food Science and Nutrition
University of Minnesota
St. Paul, Minnesota
and
LYNN M. SZYBIST
1701 N. Concord Road No. 9
Chattanooga, Tennessee
FOOD & NUTRITION PRESS, INC.
TRUMBULL, CONNECTICUT 06611 USA
Copyright 2001 by
FOOD & NUTRITION PRESS, INC.
6527 Main Street
Trumbull, Connecticut 06611 USA
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may
be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or
transmitted in any form or by any means:
electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without
permission in writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2001135365
ISBN: 0-917 678-53-2
Printed in the United States of America
PREFACE
In 1979 a government study was conducted to analyze various aspects of
open-dating practices used by food companies and supermarket chains for
commercial food products. One question addressed was why foods were not
dated in the same manner as was used for pharmaceuticals and over-the-counter
drugs and mandated by the Food and Drug Administration. At that time about
20 states had some form of dating requirements for refrigerated foods, many of
which differed significantly from each other. While many of the findings of this
1979 study supported the introduction of mandatory open-dating legislation for
foods at the federal level, the research committee concluded that the food
industry lacked data to properly implement an efficient open-dating system at
that time. However, they recommended the issue be addressed again in the
future.
Since then, a significant amount of work has been done on developing shelf-
life testing methods for foods which came from the foundation of work done on
shelf-life testing of military and NASA space foods in Marc Karel’s lab at MIT
where I (Ted Labuza) was one of his students. This work inspired me to
continue such research at the Univ. of Minnesota. During this time we also saw
the introduction of simple devices that could be put on an individual food
package, i.e., time-temperature integrators (TTIs) that actually showed the
extent of degradation of foods that was dependent on time-temperature history.
TTIs could provide the industry with sufficient means to generate truthful open
dates on most food products. In this twenty-year period, significant mandatory
dating requirements for foods appeared around the world, especially in the EU.
With globalization of food distribution, this left the U.S. behind in providing a
useful tool for the supermarkets and consumers.
The idea to reevaluate the open-dating practices of the U.S. industry was
a direct result of the establishment by the Sloan Foundation of The Retail Food
Industry Center (TRFIC now TFIC) at the University of Minnesota. TFIC is a
Center that has the objectives to examine both the business practices of the retail
food industry, as well as the food quality and safety issues resulting from the
distribution chain. The Sloan Foundation has created over 13 different centers
to study the practices of many different industries, e.g., banking, silicon chips,
transportation, etc. When the Bil Mar incident of 20 deaths from consuming hot
dogs with Listeria occurred, it was hypothesized by USDA that the food was
consumed near or beyond the end of the shelf-life on the label and that
temperature abuse may have occurred. Some manufacturers began to reduce
their labeled shelf-life, although there was no real evidence that this was needed
or would work. This then catalyzed TFIC to fund some studies to evaluate what
has happened to open dating in the U.S. over the past 20 years and to determine
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vi OPEN DATING OF FOODS
what consumers feel about open dates on foods. This resulted in the research
conducted by Lynn Szybist and created the foundation for this book.
Open dating plays a vital role in the distribution of food products from the
farm or place of manufacture to the consumer's home. One principle established
in the shelf-life research mentioned above, is that the true shelf-life is a function
of the distribution conditions and can be looked at as the percentage of
consumers a manufacturer is willing to displease. Thus one purpose of an open
date is to give consumers enough time to purchase a food product and store it
at home for a reasonable period of time before the product reaches the end of
shelf-life in terms of some degree of quality change that is still acceptable.
If products are not stored or rotated properly in distribution, then older
products or those of lesser quality and perhaps compromised safety because of
abuse during distribution, will reach the consumers, indicating a serious problem
in the distribution chain and causing loss of confidence in the food category.
Presently, the lack of uniformity among manufacturers and across state borders
has made the practice of open dating confusing and misleading for consumers,
retailers, and the government. This book addresses these issues, and provides
scientific and legal background to both evaluate and influence federally-regulated
open-dating legislation in this country.
THEODORE P. LABUZA
LYNN M. SZYBIST
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
1. Introduction .................................... 1
2 . Background and Rationale ........................... 3
3 . Temperature Abuse and Time-temperature Integrators . . . . . . . . . 15
4 . Establishing an Open Date .......................... 23
5 . Current Practices ............................... 31
6 . Current Regulations .............................. 47
. .............................
7 Proposed Regulations 61
8 . Judicial Action ................................. 65
.
9 Perishable Refrigerated Products and Home Practices
Survey ...................................... 71
10. Conclusion .................................. 103
References .................................. 105
APPENDIXES
A Proposed 1999 TTI Legislation in Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
B Canadian Open-dating Legislation F&D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
C NIST Handbook 130 .U niform Open Dating Regulation as
Adopted by The National Conference on Weights and
Measures ................................... 119
D Extended List of State Regulations on Open Dating . . . . . . . . . 125
E European Union ............................... 169
F 1999 Legislative Proposal ......................... 191
G Proposed Federal Open-Dating Regulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
H Alabama Safe Foods Act of 2000 .................... 219
Index ......................................... 229
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Definitions
An open dare or open shelf-life date refers to the practice of labeling a
packaged food with a date that indicates when the product was packed, meant
to be “sold by”, or meant to be “used by” (Labuza and Szybist 1999a). Sheff-
life is best represented as the end of consumer quality determined by the
percentage of consumers that are displeased by the product (Labuza and Schmidl
1988). This definition accounts for the variation in consumer perception of
quality and has an economic part, i.e., it is not possible to please all consumers;
thus, one must establish a baseline of consumer dissatisfaction (Labuza and
Szybist 1999a).
Purpose
A federally regulated open-dating system on food products, instead of the
current somewhat random and non-uniform state-mandated system, would
benefit today’s consumers, retailers, and government agencies. Consumers have
indicated a strong desire for open dates; it would enhance their ability to make
educated choices about the freshness of the foods they consume. A
mmdatory/uniform system would also assist retail grocers with stock rotation,
so that customers can be provided with the best products available. Finally,
federal open-dating regulations across state borders would lessen burdens on
interstate commerce. The potential benefits of this dating system outweigh the
opposing points-of-view. This book analyzes data regarding the current open-
dating practices and regulations of food products in this country, and proposes
an open-dating regulation that would most benefit the American people.
Previous Research
In 1979 the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), the research branch
of the U.S.C ongress committed to developing background papers, was charged
with examining the effects and feasibility of mandatory open-dating legislation
at the federal level. The committee chairman was Massachusetts’ Senator Ted
Kennedy, whose state’s statutes at that time required the open dating of all food
products. A task force was formed which included consumer representatives,
food retailers, processors, wholesalers, scientific experts, and state and federal
government officials. The committee analyzed the following areas concerning
open dating: (1) consumers’ perspectives on open-date labeling, (2) benefits and
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costs, (3) alternative systems and techniques, (4) alternative criteria and
scientific tests to establish open dates, (5)e nforcement mechanisms and liability
related to open-date labeling, and (6) options available to Congress. OTA
concluded that the industry lacked data to properly implement an efficient open-
dating requirement at that time but recommended the issue be addressed again
(OTA 1979). This book readdressed many of the same areas of concern from
the OTA study.
Outline of Present Open Dating Situation
Chapter Two gives a brief history on the practice of open dating and
discusses consumer demand for comprehensible dates. The problems with
temperature abuse and food handling are discussed in Chapter Three along with
the benefits associated with the implementation of time-temperature integrators
on food products. Chapter Four explains how to properly implement an open
date, and Chapter Five provides an extensive overview on current practices.
Current regulations of both the U.S. and international practices are outlined and
discussed in Chapter Six, while Chapter Seven presents a proposed regulation
to mandate standardized open dating on all food products in this country. In
Chapter Eight, past cases involving open dating in the judicial branch are
presented while potential legal actions are described involving open dating and
misbranded foods. The book concludes with the results from a consumer survey
(Chapter Nine) focusing on the present status of consumer knowledge in regard
to open dating and related issues followed by a brief summary (Chapter Ten).
CHAPTER 2
BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE
The History of Open Dating and Its Demand by Consumers
Open dating was established in the dairy industry in 1917 (Anon. 1979),
and by the 1930s, Consumer Reports published consumers’ desires for an open-
dating regulation to indicate the freshness of their foods. Supermarket chains did
not begin implementing some type of dating system, though, until the early
1970s (Seligsohn 1979). During 1979-80, although the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) had yet to propose any federally required open-dating
regulations, a number of consumers, processors, and consumerist groups held
hearings discussing its possible future implementation (IFT 1981 ).
Within the last three decades, extensive surveys and research on open dating
have been more prevalent, and reports have indicated a high consumer demand
for open-dating regulations. For instance, an A.C. Nielsen Co. (1973) report
stated that many people looked on food packages for some type of date to aid
them in selecting the freshest food. In another study, the Economic Research
Service (ERS) of USDA and the Consumer Research Institute (CRI) conducted
a consumer survey concerning food spoilage (USDA 1973). The results showed
a lack of consumer confidence in the products they had purchased from the
supermarket. While 93 % of the respondents reported that they had not purchased
any stale or spoiled products within the past year, many of them indicated a
problem with the freshness of foods. Within the last two weeks prior to being
surveyed, 18% of the customers purchased food which spoiled or staled before
they expected. When a food was spoiled on the day that it was purchased, most
consumers reported that they threw the product out rather than returning it to the
store. This is in spite of the fact that 62% of the shoppers knew about the store
money-back guarantee.
In the 1970s, as is also true now, many manufacturers preferred using code
dates on their food packages. The purpose of a code date was to assist
supermarket employees with stock rotation and as a means of lot identification
in the case of product recalls. Although the everyday use of code dates was not
directly intended for the consumers’ benefit, a consumer group, the New York
State Consumer Protection Board, published a book deciphering the meanings
of the manufacturers’ code dates. At that time, some supermarkets actually put
several books in their stores so consumers could decipher the code dates on food
products while they shopped. There were over 100,000 orders for this code
book in its first year of publication (IFT 1981), although the book does not exist
today.
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