Food Freshness: Current Technology

by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

(Page 2 of 3)

How Reliable Is Current Technology?

Product dating is the most widely used means for consumers to determine when to purchase or use a food product at its best quality. Dates stamped on packages also help the store determine how long to display the product for sale. But according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), these dates are not safety dates. Instead, they should be seen as more of a good-faith promise of freshness.

There is no uniform or universally accepted system of food dating in the United States. There are areas where much of the food supply has some type of readily understood calendar date (open dating), rather than a code understood only by the manufacturer and others in the industry (closed dating). Although dating of some foods is required by more than 20 states, in some areas of the country, almost no food products are dated. Except for infant formula and some baby foods, which are regulated by the FDA, product dating is not required by federal regulations.

Open dating is found primarily on perishable foods, such as meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy products. There is no regulation requiring meat products to have a calendar date, but manufacturers sometimes choose to use it voluntarily. The USDA says that if a federally inspected establishment has voluntarily placed a calendar date on meat products, some rules will apply. For example, such a date cannot be removed or changed by a retailer while the product remains in its original packaging.

Whenever a calendar date is used on meats, poultry, and eggs, the USDA also requires that it must express both the month and day of the month. The year is included on products that may be stored for longer times, such as those that are frozen. If a calendar date is shown, a "sell by" or "use before" phrase must accompany that date.

Closed or coded dating might appear on shelf-stable products, such as canned or boxed foods. Since product dating is not used consistently on food products, this practice often confuses or misleads consumers.

A recent report on NBC's "Dateline" uncovered the questionable practice by several national grocery chains of extending sell-by dates on meat products. At one store, the NBC team found that labels bearing a March sell-by date were strategically placed on hams to cover up the original January sell-by date. As a result, thirty-eight days had been added to the original sell-by date. In addition, a test indicated that the hams contained six times the expected bacterial count as a result of the extended time spent on the shelf.

The take-home message? According to "Dateline": Even the sell-by promise is not always a guarantee of food freshness.

The Coming of New Technology

Dwight Miller and two other scientists at the NCTR lab, Jon Wilkes, Ph.D., and Shannon Snellings, Ph.D., used information they learned from the volatile amines detection system to develop a simple but effective way to monitor food freshness. The results? Tiny disks called "food quality indicators" that do what date stamps can't — sense the production of volatile amines. Specifically, they detect the level of amines given off by certain types of seafood, such as shrimp and most types of shellfish and finfish, an indicator of the degree of decomposition.

NCTR Director Daniel A. Casciano, Ph.D., says the concept behind the food quality indicators stemmed from research already being conducted on new carpeting at the lab. The Arkansas facility routinely tests and evaluates not only the safety and hazards of food color additives, drugs, cosmetic chemicals, and other compounds within the FDA's regulatory purview, but also pesticides, airborne contaminants, plastics, synthetic fibers, industrial compounds, and more, as needed by other government agencies.

"Dwight was asked by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to help them identify the vapors that were coming off of new rugs," recalls Casciano. As certain building materials slowly evaporate and break down, they also release chemicals. There are over 120 different toxic chemicals that may be emitted by carpeting, including formaldehyde, which is used as glue in carpet backing.

About the Author

www.fda.gov
FDA is A United States government body that oversees medical devices, including contact lenses, intraocular lenses, excimer lasers and eyedrops. In the US, these products must be approved by the FDA before they can be marketed.