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The purpose of this paper is to understand determinants of food waste through analysing patterns of practices including shopping, planning, consumption of leftovers and attitudes around best-before dates.

A survey and waste composition analysis of 142 households was conducted in the City of Toronto. Bivariate analyses and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using a structural equation model were used to identify relationships between per capita food waste, household socio-demographic characteristics and household food practices.

Constructs related to planning practices and best-before date practices were identified through the CFA. Household size and the best-before construct were negatively correlated with per capita food waste. The planning construct had no correlation, which may be attributed to the influence of the retail environment in encouraging unplanned purchases. The best-before construct was significantly correlated with the presence of children in the home, an indicator of the compromises that parents make in domestic provisioning to ensure healthy foods for their children, such as more caution in handling items after their best-before dates.

This is the first study of its kind that uses directly measured per capita food waste from a waste composition study in a structural equation model with a construct related to best-before dates to determine drivers of food waste. It is also the first to find that children in the home can have an indirect influence on food waste through the household's best-before practices.

The manner in which consumers understand and interpret date labels influences their attitudes toward food quality at the purchase and consumption stage. The purpose of this study is to (1) evaluate the influence of “best before” dates on expected food liking and (2) assess how sensory perception and expectations toward “best before” dates influence actual food liking.

A consumer sensory study was conducted among 110 participants in Poland. The participants' attitudes were examined toward food products (rice, sponge cookies, canned fruit salad and leaf tea) labelled with different “best before” dates and toward those same but unlabelled food products. The consumers' expected liking based solely on “best before” dates were also evaluated.

The analysis showed that date labels may have an opposite contribution to consumer apprehension of foods. It is proved that “best before” dates maintain a consumer’s positive attitude toward fresh products and reduce consumer uncertainty regarding food edibility, which would be experienced in the absence of date labels. Conversely, results of this study confirmed date labels' role in consumers denigrating expired food and showed consumers' unreasonable convictions that the food's sensory attributes were altered. Thus, otherwise safe and edible food was wasted – it was shelf-life information, not sensory quality, that determined the tested food's perceived value.

The originality of this study is that it involves product assessment to explore the interaction between consumers and a food product's sensory attributes in the context of making decisions that are influenced by the “best-before” date.

Confusion over the interpretation of date labels is one of the main causes of food waste at the retail and consumer level. The purpose of this study was to determine consumer understanding of food date labels and to assess consumer perception of food waste based on these labels.

It is a cross-sectional study carried out in India. Google forms were used to administer an online structured questionnaire. A total of 389 individuals participated in the study. The data were analyzed using Chi-square statistics and ordinal logistic regression.

The results affirmed that most of the consumers frequently looked at date labels while purchasing food products, but many of them did not have adequate knowledge of commonly used date label terms. In particular, respondents tended to misunderstand the “best before” date label as the last date for safe consumption, that is, a safety indicator that is not correct. The study indicated that lack of appropriate knowledge, misunderstanding of date labels and lack of complete information contributed toward unnecessary and excess discard of foods that may otherwise perfectly be safe and edible.

Raising public awareness, educating consumers about food date labels and pushing for standardizing the information on date labels by providing adequate guidelines to companies would enable consumers to better interpret the labels, and it would lead to lowering the unnecessary food wastage.

This study fulfills an important knowledge gap in respect of examining the food date label knowledge and its relationship with food waste practices in India.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the food storage temperature in Swedish household refrigerators, to determine whether students use the best-before-date label to determine food edibility, and to examine if the study increased the students’ interest and knowledge regarding these issues.

In total, 1,812 students, enrolled at 72 Swedish schools, analysed the temperature on different shelves in their family refrigerator using thermometers (Moller-Therm (+0.5/−0.1 °C) and instructions provided by their teachers. A questionnaire dealing with the issues of date labelling, food safety, refrigerator storage and food wastage was completed by the teachers.

The temperature at the back of middle shelves was coldest (average 4.8 °C; SD 3.1). A relatively high proportion of food items were stored at higher temperatures than recommended. The use-by date had been exceeded for 30 per cent of products, but the students did not rate these as inedible. According to the teachers, the investigation increased interest and knowledge among their students of date labelling, food hygiene, refrigerator storage and food waste.

Thermometers were used to measure air temperature on different shelves in the family refrigerator. Data collection was not controllable, as the students measured without supervision.

The teachers reported that the study increased interest and knowledge among their students regarding cold food storage.

This way of teaching food safety would meet the aim of generally increasing food safety knowledge in society, which might have a positive impact on public health.

The use of school-children as data collectors to determine refrigerator temperatures in private homes is a novel approach, which was an efficient way of teaching relevant facts as well as collecting large amounts of data.

The purpose of this study is to investigate what consumers think about food waste, best before date (BBD) and appreciation of food in the context of a model project in the food-retailing sector. The focus was on the following key questions: How is the issue of food waste itself perceived by consumers? What understanding of the BBD was present in the sample and what do consumers imagine under the term appreciation in the context of food? The study also included an evaluation of the acceptance of the model project by customers. In this project, food no longer suitable for sale was distributed free of charge to visitors of a supermarket via a freely accessible refrigerator.

The research design was based on a mixed methods approach in an explorative sequential design. First a qualitative survey was conducted via interviews (n = 8) with customers, and the results were used for a subsequent quantitative survey (n = 88) in the supermarket.

The majority of those questioned were sensitized to the topics of food waste, BBD and appreciation of food. The results of the interviews and the questionnaires revealed a consistently positive opinion about the model project. These results indicate potential for reducing food losses among consumers and in food retailing and for improving appreciation.

This was the first study conducted as part of a model project in the retail sector in the context of food waste. The study also investigated within in the project what people think about the BBD, food losses and appreciation. At the same time, the acceptance of the project was assessed.

Earlier in the year, during the national steel industry strike, the House of Lords overturned a judgment of Lord Denning, MR, that sections of the industry unaffected by the trade dispute could be regarded as outside the Act and its amendments and that unions could be restrained in their application of immune activities to those firms. The decision apart, their Lordships in delivering judgment reaffirmed that only Parliament had power to make the Law; it was not the function of Judges to do this, their's to interpret and apply the Law. In strict legal terms and applying to statutes and statutory instruments, this is true; but in the widest sense, judges have been making law for centuries. Otherwise, from whence cometh the Common Law, one of the wonders of the world, if not from the mouths of H.M. Judges. Much of it is now enshrined in statute form, especially Criminal Law, but initially it was all judge‐made. In most systems of human control and function, complete separation is rarely possible and when attempted the results have not been conspicuously successful.

This study aims to find the most relevant variables for understanding the gap between intention and behaviour in relation to food waste reduction among young consumers, providing a theoretical framework that reveals what theories can explain this gap.

A qualitative analysis based on two focus groups with participants aged 18–35 was developed to examine young consumers' intention–behaviour gap.

The results suggest that a combination of variables from different theories (the theory of planned behaviour, social practice theory and value-belief-norm theory) can better explain the gap, and that other variables such as emotions, price consciousness and situational factors should also be taken into consideration. The authors also find that although some situational variables tend to reduce the gap, some specific situations do the opposite.

The results offer a conceptual model that combines variables from diverse theoretical streams with the aim of understanding food waste among young consumers holistically, and identify new variables that had not been considered by previous research.

Much to the relief of everyone, the general election has come and gone and with it the boring television drivel; the result a foregone conclusion. The Labour/Trade Union movement with a severe beating, the worst for half a century, a disaster they have certainly been asking for. Taking a line from the backwoods wisdom of Abraham Lincoln — “You can't fool all the people all the time!” Now, all that most people desire is not to live easy — life is never that and by the nature of things, it cannot be — but to have a reasonably settled, peaceful existence, to work out what they would consider to be their destiny; to be spared the attentions of the planners, the plotters, provocateurs, down to the wilful spoilers and wreckers. They have a right to expect Government protection. We cannot help recalling the memory of a brilliant Saturday, but one of the darkest days of the War, when the earth beneath our feet trembled at the destructive might of fleets of massive bombers overhead, the small silvery Messerschmits weaving above them. Believing all to be lost, we heaped curses on successive Governments which had wrangled over rearmament, especially the “Butter before Guns” brigade, who at the word conscription almost had apoplexy, and left its people exposed to destruction. Now, as then, the question is “Have they learned anything?” With all the countless millions Government costs, its people have the right to claim something for their money, not the least of which is the right to industrial and domestic peace.

The purpose of this study is to examine where product, process and traceability information is systematically lost at a mineral water bottling plant. It aims to highlight areas where traceability could be improved and to suggest changes that could be made to improve traceability. It also aims to examine the implications of these changes for the current system.

Process mapping was carried out at a mineral water bottling plant to investigate the flow of material and information. The results were analyzed to identify the critical traceability points (CTPs) in the production process where information is lost.

One of the CTPs at the mineral water bottling plant was the lack of a link between product, process and traceability information for the screw caps.

This is a study of an individual case, which limits the generalizations that can be made.

Procedures need to be established at the mineral water bottling plant in order to achieve traceability. All the information about the resources used in production could be linked to a “best before” date on each mineral water bottle.

The authors have found few similar case studies in the published literature. This case study can be of value to other research institutes and industries where the focus is on traceability. It could also be of interest to researchers working with information technology systems, ontology/metadata schemes, cost/benefits analyses and the impacts of traceability. The implications of traceability highlighted in this paper can be of use to regulatory authorities in their decision making processes.

The present paper focuses on the level of attention and comprehension that Greek schoolchildren have of food labels. Three different age groups (8th, 10th and 12th years of age) are examined. A large dataset from various districts in the wider Athens region has been used.

The British Food Standards Agency questionnaire used for the same purpose in the UK was adopted and adapted to the local circumstances.

The sampled schoolchildren pay attention at certain food labels elements only, and they may do so only when they purchase a product for the first time. There is an associated lack of understanding, and medium to high levels of erroneous interpretation for some food label related information. No major differences are found to exist between age groups.

Methods suitable for fostering awareness and clarity in student mindsets regarding food label elements need development.

There is a substantial need to alter the method for the exchange and provision of information to schoolchildren regarding food label information is concerned, as the current status of affairs seems to be unsatisfactory.

The paper provides empirical results regarding the extent of attention towards, and understanding of, a wide range of different elements/information available in food labels. The dataset is large and it originates from various districts in the wider Athens region.