When considering whether to waste food, consumers focus attention on food label dates rather than phrases.

Date labels have been implicated as a driver of premature discard of food by consumers, which has led to recommendations to change date labels as a way to reduce food waste. However, most proposed date label reform has focused on changing the phrase that accompanies the date on the label, and not how the date is selected. To explore the relative importance of these date label elements, we track consumers' eye movements when evaluating milk container images. When making decisions about the possible discard of milk, participants fixate significantly more on the date printed on the container than on the phrase (e.g., "use by") with >50% of decisions involving no visual fixation on the phrase. This relative inattentiveness to phrases suggests regulation of food date labels should include more focus on the process of choosing label dates.

Consumer behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic: An analysis of food purchasing and management behaviors in U.S. households through the lens of food system resilience.

The COVID-19 pandemic has stimulated considerable interest in the resilience of the U.S. food system. Less attention has been paid to the resiliency characteristics of the final link in the food system - individual households. We use national survey data from July 2020 to understand the food acquisition, preparation, and management strategies that households implemented in response to the pandemic. We find a substantial increase in the amount of food prepared and consumed at home which scales with respondents' time availability, perceived risks of dining out, and pandemic-induced income disruption. We then identify several household responses to support this increase in home food consumption that are in line with practices suggested to enhance resiliency at other links in the food supply chain, including increased cold storage capacity and enhanced in-house capability via improved cooking and food management skills. We discuss how responses such as improved food skills can reduce the propagation of shocks through the supply chain by allowing greater flexibility and less waste, while actions such as increased home cold storage capacity could undermine system resilience by exacerbating bullwhip effects, i.e., amplifying consumer demand shocks that are propagated to upstream food supply chain actors.

Metabolomic Markers of Storage Temperature and Time in Pasteurized Milk.

The current date labeling system for pasteurized milk is based on the predicted growth of spoilage microorganisms, but inherent inaccuracies and the inability to account for environmental factors (e.g., temperature fluctuations) contribute to household and retail food waste. Improved shelf-life estimation can be achieved by monitoring milk quality in real-time. In this study, we identify and quantify metabolites changing over storage temperature and time, the main factors affecting milk stability. Pasteurized 2% fat milk was stored at 4, 10, 15, and 20 °C. Metabolite change was analyzed using untargeted and targeted nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) metabolomics approaches. Several metabolites correlated significantly to storage time and temperature. Citric acid decreased linearly over time at a temperature-dependent rate. Ethanol, formic acid, acetic acid, lactic acid, and succinic acid increased non-linearly after an initial period of minimal increase. Butyric acid exhibited strong inverse temperature dependencies. This study provides the first analysis of the effect of time and temperature on the concentration of key metabolites during milk storage. Candidate molecules for shelf-life monitoring have been identified, and the results improve our understanding of molecular changes during milk storage. These results will inform the development of real-time shelf-life indicators for milk, helping to reduce milk waste.