This “Smell-By” Label Can Help You Know If Food Has Gone Bad Or If It’s Still Good To Consume

By Mayukh Saha / Truth Theory

Best before dates are put on most food and drink items to tell us by when the food can be best consumed. As more and more packaged and processed foods fill the shelves, it is really important that we consume them at their freshest. But does it mean every item should be thrown away as soon as the best before date crosses? This latest invention of a ‘smell-by’ label can help you decide when your food actually goes bad. So instead of chucking them out immediately, you’ll know how many days more they can last.

The thing about ‘best before’ dates is that they don’t indicate if an item is safe to consume. They just indicate the quality, although many people around the world solely rely on these dates. If the item crosses its best before date, it’s chucked out! But the problem is, it just tells you when the lettuce will be crunchiest or when the bread will be softest. That does not mean they turn inedible after that date.

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‘Smell-By’ Label From Too Good To Go 

Too Good To Go is a mobile app that found a third of British people waste their food based on this date. That is food wastes in thousands of tonnes in England itself. 

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So they came up with the ‘smell-by’ labels. These are scratch and sniff stickers to be put on the 4 most commonly wasted food items: eggs, oats, orange juice, and beer. When you sniff the ‘smell-by’ label, it would train your nose to better understand how spoiled food smells. This will help us reconnect with our own senses and not blindly rely on the stamped dates on food items. 

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For this ‘smell-by’ label, Too Good To Go collaborated with Dariush Alavi. He is the world’s first professional S’mellier with exquisite smelling powers. He used his unique abilities to work and develop this sticker. 

Co-founder of the company, Jamie Crummie says: “Our mission is to help everyone fight food waste together. We want labelling to be clearer across the board, but also to help consumers better understand when they really must throw food away – and these “smell by” labels are a vital part of that journey.”

The company plans on working with shop retailers to help the stickers reach the common public. If you want to try the ‘smell-by’ label now, you can order it from their website directly.
Image Credit: Too Good To Go