Key finding

'Best Before' & 'Use By'

By the 1970's there were more than 50 different labelling systems.

Innovations in packaging meant that food products could be stored for longer periods, and transported further distances. Enter the rise of ‘best before’ and ‘use by’ date stamping, a practice so inconsistent that by the 1970s there were more than 50 different labelling systems. For safety conscious customers, food that had not gone ‘off’ would be discarded due to conservative date stamping by producers and retailers.