If we want to save money on groceries through spoilage changes then promoting plant based diets is the way to go.

Dried pulses and legumes are protein sources that basically don't spoil, vegetables keep longer, and cooked food keeps heaps longer if there's no animal products in it.

The organisation is also advocating for certain products, including milk, to be moved from "use-by" labelling to "best-before", encouraging consumers to use their senses to assess whether a product is safe to consume.

[However, ] Food Safety Information Council CEO Lydia Buchtmann warned that relying on a smell alone for certain products can be dangerous, telling SBS News that food can smell completely normal and still contain disease-causing bacteria or viruses.

The whole point of this label is to protect consumers; it's not a gimmick or a thumb dial you can tweak to bolster the economy. The distinction is whether the food will be dangerous, or simply lose quality, after the date.

Milk fails this distinction; if you drink it 2 months after opening it may look and smell fine on the surface but have dangerous bacteria and be chunky at the bottom of the carton. Some foods, sure, maybe we could change the label. But surely not the food with many spoilage related metaphors??? Aged like milk, etc.

https://www.foodstandards.gov.au/consumer/labelling/dates

Foods that must be eaten before a certain time for health or safety reasons should be marked with a use-by date [...] Most foods have a best-before date. You can still eat foods for a while after the best-before date as they should be safe but they may have lost some quality.

I always wondered why we don't just have both? Like best before, AND use by? That way people get used to the labels and it's more informative.