Name: 食物標籤五花八門，傻傻分不清！解決浪費食物小標籤立大功 (It's not you. Date labels on food make no sense.)
Uploaded: 2022-06-07T21:01:10.000Z
Duration: 4 min 41 s

程度副詞

There are so many different kinds of date labels.

我根本不知道什麼是法式酸奶。

It can be REALLY confusing to know what all these labels indicate.

光是要搞清楚這些標示，就可以讓我們一個頭兩個大。

A lot of times you just throw away food that's past whatever date you see.

很多時候，你只是看到食物超過任何你可看到的日期就丟了。

But you're actually throwing away tons of perfectly good food, because many times, these dates don't mean what you think they mean.

但你實際上丟了很多還能吃的東西，因為上面的日期跟你想的不一樣。

Say you have a carton of eggs with a label that says "sell by January 1st"

好比說，一盒蛋上面的標籤寫著「建議一月一號前賣出」。

If they're in your fridge past that date, you might throw them away, thinking they're probably bad.

但如果你在一月一號後，發現這盒蛋還在冰箱，你就會以為它壞掉了，馬上把它丟掉。

But "sell by" is just a label for retailers to know when it's time to take food off their shelves so they can manage their inventory.

但那張標籤只是在提醒零售業者該何時下架，來管理庫存量。

It actually doesn't tell you anything about the safety of those eggs.

其實那跟蛋的好壞一點關係也沒有。

And that's not the only misleading label on your food.

而且那也不是唯一一個會誤導你的標籤

Part of the problem is that there are way too many labels to begin with.

問題的起因在於：標籤太多了！

Walmart, one of the biggest food retailers in the country, surveyed its label suppliers and found a total of 47 different kinds of date labels on their products.

國內最大的零售商沃爾瑪調查了標籤供應商，發現光是他們的產品就有 47 種日期標籤。

Almost all of these labels indicate the quality of food.

幾乎所有標籤都是指出食物的品質。

Manufacturers put down dates to suggest when food will be at its best or when its taste and freshness will start to deteriorate.

製造商貼上標籤標示食物的最佳賞味期，或註明食物味道或新鮮度何時會下降。

These labels are useful indicators of food quality, but they're widely misinterpreted as a sign of food safety.

這些標籤是食物品質的有效指標，但也很容易讓人誤解成能否食用的安全期限。

This national survey found that about 84% of people would at least occasionally throw away food that's past the date on labels.

國民調查顯示，有高達 84% 的民眾偶爾看到任一標籤上的日期，想都沒想就把食物丟了。

This confusion around date labels has created a massive food waste problem in the United States.

這標籤混亂的現象導致美國出現大量食物浪費。

All the uneaten food waste costs over $200 billion each year, and two thirds of that come from households.

每年沒吃過的食物總金額就高達 200 億美元，有三分之二的食物是來自各個家庭。

It costs the average family of four somewhere between $1,500 and $1,800 a year to purchase food that then ends up in the trash.

平均以一家四口來說，一年有 1,500 到 1,800 美元的食材開銷最後都變成垃圾。

And I think it's probably not a family in America that wouldn't like to have $1,500 dollars back in their pockets.

我想這些家庭應該會更想把這 1,500 美元留在自己口袋裡。

This is Joanne Berkenkamp, a senior advocate at an environmental group that has studied the impact of food labels.

環境團體提倡人喬安・波肯坎普針對食品標示進行研究。

People often assume that they're federally regulated.

大家都以為這是聯邦政府管制的。

And in fact that's not the case with the exception of infant formula.

事實上只有幼兒配方奶是這樣。

So it really is up to food manufacturers to figure out what they're going to do with those dates on their particular products.

所以一切端看製造商怎麼處理食品上的各種日期標籤。

Yeah, the label makes sense if you're a little baby, but for everything else, it's often up to the state governments to decide if they want date labels and what those labels should say.

如果你是嬰兒的話，食物標籤確實有意義，但除此之外，就看州政府規定要不要日期標籤，或標籤上要標什麼。

In Georgia for example the law says that "Expiration Date" is interchangeable with "Best by," "Best before," "Use by," and "Sell by" dates.

比如說，喬治亞州法律規定「保存期限」可以代換成「賞味期限」、「最佳賞味期」、「有效期限」、「在這之前銷售」。

But in Minnesota a product needs to have a "Quality Assurance Date" which can be a date of manufacture or packaging, a freshness date, an expiration date, or a shelf display date.

但是在明尼蘇達州的「品質保證期」，它可以是製造日期、包裝日期、保鮮期、有效期限、上架日期。

And a state like New York says, date labels?

但紐約州民這輩子都沒聽過「日期標籤」。

In total 41 states plus Washington DC require some kind of food date label.

包含華府，一共有 41 州規定要在食物上加上某種日期標籤。

So there's this real amalgam of different rules from one state to another and that contributes to confusion for consumers.

所以光是一個國家裡，不同州之間就有著五花八門的規定，讓消費者一頭霧水。

And it also makes it harder for food processors and manufacturers to comply with those rules.

也使食品加工商和製造商難以遵守這些規則。

You know, most larger food companies are shipping food across state lines and so trying to comply with that patchwork of regulations is just tough for the food businesses as well.

許多食品大廠會跨州運送食物，所以他們也很難去遵守這些來自四面八方混雜的規定。

So what can be done to fix this labeling problem?

所以到底該怎麼解決這個問題？

Many experts think that the best solution would be a federal regulation that standardizes all date labels.

專家們認為應該要由聯邦制定規範，統一所有的日期標籤。

One way to avoid confusion would be to remove visible "sell by" dates.

其中一個方法是拿掉「銷售期」的標籤。

Instead, packages could have a scannable barcode that would still allow stores to track their inventory without confusing customers.

取而代之的是，在包裝上附上條碼供業者掃描來追蹤庫存，就不會誤導消費者。

Another way would be to standardize labels for safety and for quality.

另一個方法是針對食品的安全和品質標準制定標準化的標籤。

Foods where there is a safety risk could say "safe if used by," which wouldn't be applied to most foods that don't really expire.

有食安疑慮的食物可以附上「食品安全期」，但這不適用於不太會過期的食物。

For quality they could say "peak quality guaranteed before" instead of just "best by."

針對品質上的顧慮，就可以用「品質保證期」來代替「最佳賞味期」。

Having a standardized label would remove a lot of confusion, but even then, we shouldn't treat these dates like gospel — when you're trying to decide if your food is safe to eat, your best bet is still just trusting your senses.

統一標籤就不會讓人摸不著頭緒，但我們也不能將這些日期當作是聖旨去判斷你的食物還能不能吃，最好方式還是相信自己的感覺。

And if we all band together and do our part, maybe, just maybe, I can some day figure out what creme fraiche is.

如果各方都願意付出一點心力合作，也許，只是也許啦，我有天會知道什麼是法式酸奶。