USDA app aims to stop Americans from wasting 36 lbs. food a month

[flowers]

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/usda-app-aims-to-stop-americans-from-wasting-36-lbs.-food-a-month/article/2563422

USDA provided a video in which one official explains, "Many products may have a sell-by date of say April 1 but they could be good in your pantry for another 12 or 18 months. And by throwing those out, what you're doing, is you're contributing to food waste in the United States." As an example, the video showed boxes of dried pasta.

In a recent blog post about their mobile application, USDA explained what FoodKeeper can do:

-- Find specific storage timelines for the refrigerator, freezer, and pantry, depending on the nature of the product.

-- Get cooking tips for cooking methods of meat, poultry and seafood products.

-- Note in your devices' calendar when products were purchased and receive notifications when they are nearing the end of their recommended storage date.

It is part of a larger program from USDA and the Environmental Protection Agency called the U.S. Food Waste Challenge aimed at reducing waste, or recycling old food to feed animals.

[Oceander]

The sell-by date really has nothing to do with whether any particular item is still edible.  Even with perishables such as meat, the sell-by date doesn't determine when the product goes from good to bad.  The sell-by date is, generally speaking, a date chosen to ensure that all or substantially all of the marketed product is fresh, which means that it is usually significantly before the date by which the average product would start to go bad.  It just makes common sense to go by how the food appears, not by some relatively arbitrary date.