Blog 3

Dear Grocery stores,

    A rather big issue we are facing because of grocery stores is the fact that expiration dates are not regulated. In writing this letter, I hope to inspire you to make a change towards including expiration dates on food packaging.

    The only food in America that is legally obliged to have an expiration date is baby food. Yes, it is important to consider a babies health, but it is also extremely important to understand the importance of adults health as well. Though adults have stronger immune systems than babies, there is no harm in putting an expiration date on other foods. 

    One reason for this is that we do not want to see people getting sick from foods consumed that they thought would be safe to eat. With no expiration dates, potential problems such as grocery store shoppers getting very severe food poisoning could take place. The FDA must be aware of the fact that people may easily become sick if they consume bad foods, which makes me wonder why there is no rule on regulation for expiration dates. 

   Another reason that expiration dates must be regulated is to stop the vast amount of food waste. When people buy foods that have an expiration date and see that they are on the expiration day, they may become a bit hesitant towards consuming it. Even days before an expiration date many are known to throw the products away thinking they are at risk of having them go bad. As most people know, expiration dates are not exact so given that information, people tend to play it safe. When people are throwing food out regardless of how much is left, it is piling up all of the food that is being wasted day by day.

    If food companies were to start including expiration dates on their packaging, people would be more aware of when they should consume food products by, which would lead to a lesser amount of people getting food poisoning and other food related sicknesses. Taking this step would teach people to ration, for example when buying food products, shoppers would purchase smaller quantities of food which would help them save money and would lead to less food waste. With people being able to ration, the food companies could start to have less food production which would mean there is more food to conserve.

    I hope that you have found this letter both insightful and inspiring. Hopefully in the near future we can see more expiration dates on the foods being sold in grocery stores to better the customers who are purchasing it. Babies need to be healthy to develop correctly which is why their foods have expirations, and in order to be a healthy adult you must eat right which means we must also know more about the food we are putting into our bodies. All that has to take place in order for an idea like this to take place is to have the FDA's approval and encourage them to make the change. Though it is not required to include an expiration date on food packaging, we would still be able to get companies to include them because expiration dates do not have to be FDA approved. I am hoping to soon see a change that will lead to healthy people and less waste.

Sincerely, 

Olivia O'Neal