Canadians Are Throwing Away Perfectly Good Food — And It’s Costing Them Millions
Canadians often point the finger at grocery stores, food manufacturers, or governments when it comes to food waste. But the real culprit may be much closer to home — and much simpler to fix. A growing body of evidence suggests that confusion over food date labels is driving households across the country to toss out food that is still perfectly safe to eat.
A Nationwide Problem Hidden in Plain Sight
New survey data from the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University, collected in partnership with Caddle and based on responses from 3,000 Canadians, paints a striking picture. While only 11% of respondents said they always throw away food past its expiration date, another 20% do so often and 37% do so sometimes. That means nearly seven in 10 Canadians allow date labels to influence their decision to discard food — a habit that carries significant financial and environmental costs.
The Surprising Generation Gap
Perhaps the most unexpected finding in the survey is the generational divide. Generation Z, often criticized for a range of perceived shortcomings, turns out to be the least wasteful cohort when it comes to date-driven food disposal. Only 6.1% of Gen Z respondents said they always throw away food past its expiration date, compared to 15.6% of Generation X. More than a third of Gen Z participants said they rarely or never discard food based solely on a printed date.
Generation X, by contrast, is proving to be Canada’s most cautious generation on this issue. Nearly 40% said they always or often throw away food once it has passed its labeled date.
Why the Generations See It Differently
The explanation likely lies at the intersection of economics, lived experience, and risk perception. Younger Canadians face unprecedented affordability pressures — high housing costs, student debt, stagnant wages, and rising food prices are forcing many to stretch every grocery dollar as far as it will go. Gen Z consumers are also more likely to have been exposed to sustainability campaigns and food waste education initiatives that emphasize an important distinction: most date labels indicate peak quality, not a safety cutoff.
Generation X occupies a different position. Many in this cohort are simultaneously caring for children and aging parents, making the potential consequences of serving unsafe food feel far more serious than the cost of replacing a carton of milk or a package of cheese. This generation also came of age during decades marked by heightened public awareness of foodborne illness outbreaks, product recalls, and health warnings — experiences that may have shaped a more cautious, date-driven approach to food safety.
The Labeling System Is Poorly Understood
At the heart of the problem is a fundamental misunderstanding of Canada’s food labeling system. Many consumers cannot distinguish between best-before dates and expiration dates. In most cases, a best-before date is intended as an indicator of when a product is at its peak quality — not when it becomes unsafe to consume. Yet countless items end up in the trash because shoppers treat the printed date as an absolute deadline.
This confusion has real and measurable consequences. Food waste is not merely an environmental concern; it is an affordability issue. Every container of yogurt, loaf of cheese, package of deli meat, or portion of leftovers that is unnecessarily discarded represents a direct financial loss for the household. At a time when nearly a quarter of Canadian households experience some degree of food insecurity, reducing avoidable waste should be treated as a national priority.
The environmental toll is equally significant. Wasted food means wasted water, wasted energy, wasted labor, wasted transportation, and unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions. Few Canadians realize that household-level food waste is one of the single largest sources of inefficiency in the entire food system.
Food Literacy Is the Key to Change
The encouraging news is that this problem is largely solvable — and it does not require billion-dollar government programs. What is needed is a serious, sustained effort to improve food literacy across the country. Consumers need clearer, more accessible guidance on how to interpret food dates, how to store products properly, and how to use common sense — sight, smell, and taste — to assess whether food is still good.
Retailers and manufacturers also have a role to play. Simplifying labels, standardizing date terminology, and providing shoppers with practical storage and usage information could go a long way toward reducing unnecessary waste at the household level.
The survey data suggests that younger Canadians may already be ahead of the curve. If so, they have something valuable to teach the rest of the country. The next time you reach for a product that has just passed its labeled date, it may be worth pausing to ask a simple question: Is the food actually unsafe, or am I simply reacting to a number printed on a package?
The answer could save Canadian households millions of dollars every year — and keep vast quantities of perfectly edible food out of landfills.
