According to SFA’s Guide to Food Labelling and Advertisements, only 19 categories of food require expiry dates. These are dairy, tofu, contains vegetables or fruits, flour, chocolate, infant food, and cooking oils. However, for commercial reasons, almost every food item has a date stamped on it.
In Singapore, there’s no difference between any of the following:
- Expiry date
- Consume by date
- Use by date
- Sell by date
- Best before date
They all mean the same thing:
Beyond this date, the food item is not allowed to be sold.
It does not mean that it’s not edible. However, because of this, charities do not give expired food items to their beneficiaries, and tonnes of expired but edible food go straight to the incinerator.
In most cases, food manufacturers, distributors, importers, suppliers, and charities end up dump the food because they have no use for it.
But we do.
Members of our community educate their family, friends, and neighbours on how to tell if a food can be consumed safely or not using the Look-Smell-Taste test method. It makes no sense to throw away perfectly edible food just because of an arbitrary date.
We want to put a stop to this practice of throwing away edible food by providing food suppliers with a free collection and consumption service.
If you’d like us to come collect your expired food, let us know some details by filling up the form below and we’ll contact you to arrange for collection by truck:
Thank you!
SG Food Rescue 