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There are so many different kinds of date labels.
有很多不同种类的日期标签。
Best if used by...Use or freeze by...Creme fraiche. I don’t even know what creme fraiche is.
在……之前食用口感最佳，常温保存或冷藏至……鲜奶油。我连鲜奶油是个什么鬼都不知道。
Bottled on...Packed on...Enjoy by...Enlarged for texture...That looks something else.
在……下罐装保存……用……包装保存，在……之前享用……充气包装保证口感……感觉有点文不对题。
It can be REALLY confusing to know what all these labels indicate.
所有这些标签的含义了解起来会让人很不解。
A lot of times you just throw away food that’s past whatever date you see.
很多时候，不管包装上印的是什么日期，只要已过期，大家就扔了。
But you’re actually throwing away tons of perfectly good food
但大家其实扔掉了大量品质完好的食品，
because many times, these dates don't mean what you think they mean.
因为很多时候，这些日期的意思并不是大家以为的那个意思。
Say you have a carton of eggs with a label that says “sell by January 1st.”
假设你有一箱鸡蛋，标签上写着“1月1日前出售”。
If they’re in your fridge past that date,
如果大家在冰箱里放的时间超过了那个日期，
you might throw them away thinking they’re probably bad.
你就可能因为觉得鸡蛋已经坏了就把它们给扔了。
But “sell by” is just a label for retailers to know when it’s time to take food off their shelves,
但是，“销售至某日”这种标签只是为了让零售商知道他们什么时候该该下架，
so they can manage their inventory.
以便管理他们的库存。
It actually doesn’t tell you anything about the safety of those eggs.
这一标签实际上跟鸡蛋的安全性没有丝关系。
And that’s not the only misleading label on your food.
然而，这种标签并不是大家买到的食物上唯一会让人误解的标签。
Part of the problem is that there are way too many labels to begin with.
首先，部分问题在于，食物上的标签实在是太五花八门了。
Walmart, one of the biggest food retailers in the country, surveyed its label suppliers
沃尔玛，国内最大的食品零售商之一 ，曾经对自家食品上的标签做了个调查，
and found a total of 47 different kinds of date labels on their products.
发现了47种不同的日期标签。
Almost all of these labels indicate the quality of food.
几乎所有这些标签都能传达食品的品质信息。
Manufacturers put down dates to suggest when food will be at its best.
制造商制定日期是为了告诉大家食物何时品质最佳，
Or when its taste and freshness will start to deteriorate.
或者何时会开始变味或者变得不新鲜。
These labels are useful indicators of food quality, but they’re widely misinterpreted as a sign of food safety.
这些标签是很好的食品质量指标，但被广泛误解成了食品安全的标志。
This national survey about perceptions of labels found that
这项关于标签认知的全国性调查发现，
about 84% of people would at least occasionally throw away food that’s past the date on labels.
大约84％的人至少偶尔会丢弃超过标签日期的食物。
This confusion around date labels has created a massive food waste problem in the United States.
在美国，这种对日期标签的困惑造成了严重的食物浪费问题。
All the uneaten food waste costs us over $200 billion each year, and two thirds of that comes from households.
每年所有未被食用的食物浪费价值2000多亿美元，其中有三分之二都来自家庭。
It costs the average family of four somewhere between $1,500 and $1,800 a year to purchase food that then ends up in the trash.
购买这些最终被倒进垃圾桶的食物，普通的四口之家一年就要花费1500美元至1800美元。
And I think it's probably not a family in America that wouldn't like to have $1,500 dollars back in their pockets.
我想，应该没有任何一个美国家庭不希望把这1500美元放回自己口袋吧。
This is JoAnne Berkenkamp, a senior advocate at an environmental group that has studied the impact of food labels.
这位是JoAnne Berkenkamp，她是某研究食品标签影响的环保组织的资深倡议人。
People often assume that they're federally regulated.
人们通常认为这些标签是受联邦监管的。
And in fact that's not the case with the exception of infant formula.
事实上除婴儿配方奶粉外，其他食品的标签并非如此。
So it really is up to food manufacturers to figure out what they're going to do with those dates on their particular products.
因此其实是食品制造商在负责如何规定某款产品上日期标签的内容。
Yeah, the label makes sense if you’re a little baby,
没错，如果你还是个小宝宝，那么这些日期标签确实是行得通的，
but for everything else,
但在其他时候，
it’s often up to the state governments to decide if they want date labels and what those labels should say.
通常是由州政府来决定产品是否需要日期标签以及这些标签的具体内容。
That’s where it gets really confusing.
这就是让人无比困惑的地方。
In Georgia for example, the law says that “Expiration Date” is interchangeable with “Best by,” “Best before,”“Use by,”and “Sell by”dates.
例如，在格鲁吉亚，法律规定“过期日期”可以与“最佳实用日期”，“最好在……之前食用”，“在……之前食用”或“在……之前卖出”等表述互换。
But in Minnesota a product needs to have a “quality assurance date”
但在明尼苏达州，产品包装上还需要给出“质量保证日期”
which can be a date of manufacture or packaging, a freshness date, an expiration date, or a shelf display date.
而这一日期可以是制造日期或包装日期，新鲜度日期，过期日期或在架日期。
And a state like New York says “Date labels? Forget about it!” I don’t deserve love.
像纽约这样的州则规定：“日期标签？算了吧。”我不配得到爱。
In total 41 states plus Washington DC require some kind of food date label.
总的来看，华盛顿特区外加41个州都规定了食品上要有某种形式的日期标签。
So there's this real amalgam of different rules from one state to another and that contributes to confusion for consumers.
每个州有每个州自己的规定，而这些规定碰到一起就会让消费者感到困惑。
And it also makes it harder for food processors and manufacturers to comply with those rules.
也会加大食品加工商和制造商遵守这些规定的难度。
You know, most larger food companies are shipping food across state lines
你知道的，大部分大型食品公司都会往很多州运输食品，
and so trying to comply with that patchwork of regulations is just tough for the food businesses as well.
所以，试图遵守这些五花八门的规章制度对食品企业来说也变得无比困难。
So what can be done to fix this labeling problem?
那么，怎样才能解决这个标签问题呢？
Many experts think that the best solution would be a federal regulation that standardizes all date labels.
许多专家认为最好的办法就是制定联邦法规，统一规定所有的日期标签。
And what would this new label say?
那这个新标签要怎么规定呢？
One way to avoid confusion would be to remove visible “sell by” dates.
避免混淆的一个办法就是去除“在……之前卖出”这种可见的日期标签。
Instead, packages could have a scannable barcode that would still allow stores to track their inventory without confusing customers.
相反，我们可以在包装上面设置可扫描的条形码，在满足商店跟踪库存的同时还不会让顾客感到困惑。
Another way would be to standardize labels for safety and for quality.
另一种方法就是对安全标签和品质标签进行标准化。
Foods where there is a safety risk could say “safe if used by”, which wouldn’t be applied to most foods that don’t really expire.
存在安全风险的食品可以注明“安全使用日期”，但是这种标签并不适用于大多数并没有过期的食品。
For quality they could say “peak quality guaranteed before” instead of just “best by".
而针对食品的品质，则可以注明“……以前品质有最佳保证”，而不是用“最好在……之前食用”这样的标签。
“Having a standardized label would remove a lot of confusion,
“拥有标准化的标签会消除很多混乱，
but even then, we shouldn't treat these dates like gospel —
但即使如此，我们也不应把这些日期神圣化 -
when you're trying to decide if your food is safe to eat, your best bet is still just trusting your senses.
试图决定你的食物是否安全时，最好的选择还是相信你的感觉。
And if we all band together and do our part,
如果我们团结一致，各尽本分，
maybe, just maybe, I can some day figure out what creme fraiche is.
也许，我是说也许，有一天我也能弄明白什么是鲜奶油。
