Achi news desk-
A new study reveals that one in five Canadians believe they got sick from eating unsafe food because they didn’t want to throw it away.
More than half of the 9,000 people surveyed by Dalhousie’s Agri-Food Analytics Lab say they are willing to eat food that has been near or past its best-by date.
“Fifty-eight percent are actually more tempted to eat a product that is close to its expiration date or beyond, more than last year, as a result of higher food prices,” says Sylvain Charlebois, director of the analysis laboratory. City News. “It’s definitely number one that surprised us. It’s much higher than expected.”
It is important to remember that a best before date is not an expiration date. Food past the best-before date may still be edible but will not necessarily retain freshness, flavor or nutritional value. But Charlebois says it’s still a risk, one that more Canadians are taking. He says the positive attitude may be that Canadians produce less food waste, but given the affordability crisis, it reflects that some people don’t have the money for fresher food.
“Statistics Canada came out this week with new numbers on retail sales, and if you look at food sales per capita, it’s still down to $243 per capita,” says Charlebois. “It’s the lowest it’s been in many, many years.”
Food banks in Canada say they are not surprised by the research. Statistics Canada’s Canadian Income Survey, released Friday, shows a similar situation. Statscan found that 23% — or nearly nine million Canadians — lived in food insecure households in 2022, an increase of nearly 1.8 million people from the previous year. This was the second consecutive year of increases since the pandemic began.
The data from Canada’s own food banks also show a sharp increase in the use of food banks.
“We’re seeing people struggling. We’re seeing that through increased visits, we’re seeing it through increased need,” said Richard Mattern, director of research at Food Banks Canada.
“This confirms what we saw a year ago, when food bank use was at its highest levels. We saw two million visits a month alone last year and that was the highest we’ve ever seen, which was a 30 percent increase from the year before, and almost an 80 percent increase from before the epidemic”.
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