By XANTHA LEATHAM DEPUTY SCIENCE EDITOR IN BOSTON

Published: 20:32 GMT, 17 February 2025 | Updated: 22:33 GMT, 17 February 2025

Gen Z youngsters waste more food than their parents because they are confused by ‘best before’ labels and never learned how to tell if something is off, experts say.

A poll has found teens and young adults aged between 13 and 28 are most reliant on food date labels but are also the most baffled by them.

Every year, around 10 million tonnes of food is wasted in the UK and much of it gets binned while still edible.

Researchers say young people are particularly wasteful because they have never farmed food themselves or lived in a world without date labels.

They also get spooked by food poisoning scares and fake news on social media, they added.

Experts want people to re-learn to use their own senses of sight, smell and taste to decide when food is good or bad.

Professor Emily Broad Leib, from Harvard University in the US, said: ‘We found the youngest consumers were most likely to rely on date labels.

‘They were most likely to think all the labels are safety dates and to throw food away at the date.

Gen Z youngsters waste more food than their parents because they are confused by ‘best before’ labels and never learned how to tell if something is off, experts say. Pictured: File photo

A poll has found teens and young adults aged between 13 and 28 are most reliant on food date labels but are also the most baffled by them. Pictured: File photo

A poll has found teens and young adults aged between 13 and 28 are most reliant on food date labels but are also the most baffled by them. Pictured: File photo 

‘I’m confident most of these dates are really about quality – it’s impossible for most foods to actually put a date at which point they become unsafe.’

She surveyed 2,069 American adults and compared the results with a similar poll in 2016.

The study found 43 per cent of people always or usually chuck food based only on the date label.

This was an increase from 37 per cent in 2016, and Professor Broad Leib said about half of people are ‘overly precautionary’.

People also did not understand labels as well as they thought, with only 57 per cent correctly interpreting them.

Her full results will be published later this month.

Speaking at the conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), in Boston, health law expert Professor Broad Leib said: ‘It was depressing because consumers are performing worse in 2025 on all the key things.

‘I think a big piece of it is that date labels were widely used starting in the 1970s.

Researchers say young people are particularly wasteful because they have never farmed food themselves or lived in a world without date labels. Pictured: File photo

Researchers say young people are particularly wasteful because they have never farmed food themselves or lived in a world without date labels. Pictured: File photo  

‘There are people who didn’t have them when they started buying food.

‘I think the further we get away from that, and the further we get away from people having themselves had a role in growing, harvesting or producing food, the more people look at it like they look at any manufactured good.

‘They have less understanding of what they should be looking at.’

British shops only use a use-by date, which is a sign of safety, or best-before, which indicates a decline in quality.

The Food Standards Agency advises: ‘Never eat food after the use-by date, even if it looks and smells ok, as it could make you very ill.

‘You can eat food until midnight on the use-by date shown on a product, but not after, unless the food has been cooked or frozen.

‘After the best before date listed on a product, the food will be safe to eat but may not be at its best.’

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Revealed: Why Gen Z waste more food than their parents

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