The Netherlands has started a project to combat food waste related to date marking by better explaining the different date markings on packaging. This project is a collaboration between the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality, the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, Too Good To Go Netherlands and the Food Waste Free United coalition.

As part of a broader approach to tackle food waste related to date marking through the successful consumer campaign launched in 2020, the project aims to clarify the meaning of ‘use by’ and ‘best before’ dates on food packaging by using visual cues (pictures, short texts or a combination of both).

In January 2021, Wageningen University & Research started research to determine the impact of different visual cues to improve consumer understanding and use of date marking, in order to prevent food waste. If results are promising, pilots are planned to be launched in autumn 2021 in collaboration with Dutch food manufacturers.