Entrepreneur.com.ph

Let's face it. Processed foods and pre-packaged fresh foods now form a major part of our daily nourishment, and because they are ready to consume or easy to prepare, they free us from the drudgery of food preparation and cooking and allow us to pursue more active lifestyles.

But we must keep in mind that it's not a simple task to ensure that packaged foods are still safe and healthful to eat by the time we are about to consume them. This a major concern that engages the entire supply and distribution chain-from producers and manufacturers to their distributors and retailers down to the consuming public. The government, of course, has a critical role in this effort, for it has to enforce the standards that can ensure the integrity and quality of food products all the way to the point of consumption.

A major safeguard instituted by governments in most parts of the world is the mandatory open-date marking of prepackaged food products. This requirement is designed to prevent them from staying on store shelves or from being sold beyond their expiration dates or "best before" dates.

In the Philippines, it is the Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD) that provides and enforces guidelines for the labeling and open-date marking of packaged food products. Specifically, BFAD requires all packaged food manufacturers and producers to comply with the following regulations:

The "Consume Before [Date]" marking must be indicated in the labels of packaged fresh food products, particularly those without preservatives (thus making them highly perishable), such as fresh milk and fruit juices, butter, cream, yogurt, chocolate drinks, bakery products, cheese and cheese products, cured meat products (not canned), frozen fish and meat, and baby food. The "Consume Before [Date]" marking is also considered as the "Expiry Date" of the product.

The "Best Before [Date]" or "Best Used By [Date]" marking must be indicated in the labels of processed food products to signify that these can still be consumed safely even after the date indicated. However, this marking is to be taken to mean that within a few weeks after the indicated date, the quality of the product would have significantly decreased as evidenced by, say, a change in color, texture, appearance, or decrease in vitamin content.

Putting these open-date markings on their packaged food products is routinely done by their manufacturers and producers, based on the average shelf life of the food item as packed. The real burden of making the system work actually falls on the distributors and retailers of these products, particularly supermarkets, grocery stores, convenience stores, and neighborhood sari-sari stores. The task of checking the shelves for expired or near-expiry products is likewise easy enough, but it is unfortunately also very easy to overlook-until it's too late and complaints from irate customers start pouring in.

To ensure that the open-date marking system on packaged food products really works in distributors' warehouses and in retail outlets, here are some important procedures that need to be observed:

1 Set up a regular monitoring system. Storeowners should set up a daily, weekly, and monthly schedule for monitoring food products depending on their level of perishability. In the case of bakery products such as loaf bread and buns, for instance, the BFAD guidelines provide that their expiration dates should be three days after the date of manufacture. Since a retail outlet typically takes delivery of these products on a daily basis, its staff should check the bread shelves every day to make sure that all old bread are pulled out by the supplier and that none is left behind on the shelves. Packaged food products with longer shelf lives, on the other hand, can be monitored weekly or monthly.

2 Make sure that products on display are always fresh. Storeowners should keep in mind that displaying new or fresh food items at all times would not only ensure consumer safety but also protect the store's interest and reputation. Customers are unlikely to continue patronizing stores that allow expired or near-expiry items to remain on display, as this is a strong indication that the store has a slow turnover and is always trying to dispose of old stock.

3 Label to inform, not to mislead. Some supermarkets make the following misleading practices: (1) putting on sale food items that are nearing their "Best Before [Date]"; (2) cover up expired or near-expiry dates of products; and (3) put up bargain signs that misrepresent old food items as newly delivered. These deceptive practices are bound to damage the supermarket's reputation, and ideally the supermarkets should make it clear to the consumers the reasons for putting these items on sale. For their part, consumers should always be on the lookout for these practices, carefully checking the open-date labels of food products for possible alterations.

In the end, only our continuing vigilance as consumers can ensure that the packaged food products we buy are always safe and healthful to eat.