Achi news desk-
A new study from Dalhousie University Halifax and Caddle finds that rising food costs are causing most Canadians to eat food beyond the recommended date.
Focusing specifically on what happens at home, just over 9,000 participants weighed up what kind of compromises they make in their kitchens.
“Our study is about best-before dates because best-before dates really require judgment,” said Dalhousie Agri-Food Analytics lab director Sylvain Charlebois.
“Best before doesn’t mean bad after, so you have to assess with your senses and yourself whether that food is safe to eat or not.”
Overall, Charlebois says the results are surprising, with 58 per cent of those surveyed saying that higher food costs have made them more inclined to eat food close to the best before or past date.
“I’m not really a coupon shopper or look hard at the prices, but I certainly notice they’ve gone up and so yeah, I’ll probably eat some things beyond the date best before,” said Moncton resident Gord Reid.
“It’s probably meat I’d stay away from, dairy I can tell when you open it by the smell, but a lot of packaged things either in cans or in boxes and stuff, I don’t care so much.”
Breaking it down further, of the 58 per cent:
- 23 percent said they always ate food past its prime
- almost 39 percent said they often eat such food
- just under 31 percent said they sometimes do it
- only 7.5 percent said they rarely eat food under these conditions
Charlebois says the results clearly show that, although people are wasting less, they are putting more at risk in terms of food safety.
“I think the most alarming results were in relation to people who believe they have become ill as a result of eating contaminated food products and so 1 in 5 Canadians, 1 in 5 consumers, believe their actually got sick due to the fact that they were actually eating an unsafe food product, but younger generations were more affected,” he said.
Millennials were the biggest influence in this survey question. Charlebois attributes it to the fact that the group feels more confident about their health and their ability to deal with foodborne illness and that they face “tremendous financial pressure.”
Looking at the big picture, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency estimates that more than 4 million Canadians are affected by foodborne illnesses each year.
However, Charlebois says he would challenge that number when people are facing high food costs as we are currently seeing.
“I think there’s probably a strong correlation between food prices and the number of foodborne illnesses we see in Canada, to be honest. I believe right now what we are going through as a society is unprecedented,” he said.
“Basically, people are forced into inventories that are managed very differently at home.”
Darren Dorcas, culinary arts instructor at NBCC, says there are other ways people can save money at the grocery store.
“If you were to buy a whole chicken, a whole chicken is going to run about $10 for the whole thing and you get two breasts, two thighs, two wings and you can cut that down and stretch that a lot further,” he said.
“That one $10 might buy you two chicken breasts.”
He adds that buying a whole chicken also leaves you with the carcass which can be made into soup stock.
“Now you’ve turned one chicken into possibly three meals,” said Dorcas.
Other tips include shopping around where possible, opting for frozen fruit and vegetables, and buying in bulk and storing properly in your freezer.
“Obviously fresh vegetables are going to be a bit more expensive, so an alternative is to look at frozen vegetables. In terms of nutrients and that, it’s exactly the same,” he said.
“The other options are that we can look to explore different foods, so for example, if we look at the Indian food, they eat a lot of pulses, rice. It’s not that heavy in terms of meat.”
According to the study, a total of 47 per cent of Canadians have said they have changed their approach to preserving food to extend the shelf life of products.
“Airtight containers are good as long as the containers are packed very tightly, so less air gets in to prevent freezer burn,” says NBCC cooking program coordination instructor Owen Brinson.
“You can also wrap it tightly using plastic wrap, the best is a vacuum sealer with vacuum seal bags to remove all the air. It will last a bit longer and you can also use a resealable bag, again try to get as much air out of it as you can before freezing.”
When it comes to items in the fridge, Brinson said preparation can play a role.
“The smaller you cut something, the faster it deteriorates just for access surface area and exposure to air. So if you cut things on a medium or larger dice, it will last longer in the fridge. You might get an extra day or two out of it before it starts to get a little boring. The same with unpeeled whole vegetables will last a bit longer.”
When it comes to best before dates, Charlebois says it’s about what each individual is comfortable with, but there are a few items he notes as ones to keep an eye on.
“You really have to assess risk correctly, so meat products, dairy products, be careful and in third place obviously products,” he said.
Adding that people often get sick because they don’t look at the CFIA website or pay attention to food recalls.
“The biggest challenge is in the Atlantic, it’s right here, that’s where we’ve seen the highest food inflation rates in the last two years,” he said.
“People in the Atlantic are still recovering from very steep walking and that has been problematic for our region.”
For more New Brunswick news visit our dedicated provincial page.
