Guest column: Food ‘shelflation’ an increasing concern during pandemic

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By now, you may have heard of a phenomenon called shrinkflation.

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Many companies will reduce quantities without changing the price by adjusting their packaging strategy. It’s been going on for years. It is the illusion of buying the same amount of product when it has in fact shrunk over time.

But another growing concern is when supply chains aren’t working optimally, food products will reach store shelves either less fresh than usual or even a little too ripe, robbing consumers from some needed shelf life at home.

This is called “shelflation.”

According to a recent poll by Dalhousie University and the app Caddle, in the past 12 months a total of 41 per cent of Canadians have thrown away milk because it went sour before its due date. Of that group, 38.5 per cent of respondents have done it at least twice and for 22.8 per cent three to five times.

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Throwing away spoiled products before due dates does happen from time to time, but such a high number is quite unusual. Anecdotally, many Canadians of late have noticed some of their produce isn’t as fresh as it used to be and will rot much sooner.

There’s no specific data on this yet and I suspect many Canadians have not noticed anything different. Snowstorms, labor shortages, procurement problems related to some ingredients or even packaging issues can affect perishable foods, pandemic or not.

“Shelflation” is indeed quite common and pandemics aren’t the only way a product’s shelf life can be compromised. Delays due to weather, natural disasters (like what we witnessed in British Columbia last year), labor disputes, massive recalls or equipment failures can disrupt a supply chain’s efficiency.

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Cold chains — kept between 2C and 8C — that are responsible for keeping perishables fresh from farm to store, can also be breached for one reason or another. Mechanical breakdowns, hindrances outside the warehouse or unusually warm temperatures, for example, can shorten the life of or even spoil products before a shipment reaches the store.

Food distribution is complex.

But the pandemic has clearly disrupted global food supply chains in more ways than one, so we shouldn’t be surprised to see more “shelflation” happening.

Asking food companies to operate with fewer staff around will eventually bring forth delays along the way and, of course, more waste. And waste at home will certainly contribute to higher food costs for everyone.

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The average family of four will spend about $14,000 on food annually and at least 50 per cent of that budget is dedicated to perishables. Wasting a good portion of that can be costly.

The shelf life of a product is the time between production and the use-by date. The shelf life for highly perishable foods is set rather conservatively to ensure food safety. Expiry dates or best before dates are critical to the fabric of our food safety system and modern technologies have done wonders to prolong the shelf life of many of our products.

In the store, assessing the state of any food with expiration dates is close to impossible due to air-tight packaging. So, naturally, we zone in on dates.

At the grocery store, we essentially buy time along with our food. We will constantly go for products where the best before or use-by dates are as late as possible. But consumers can only go by the information provided at the point of purchase without knowing the product’s history before it reached the store.

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In Canada, about 2.2 million tonnes of edible food is wasted each year. The most common causes of perishable food waste at a retailer are overstocking, unpredictable consumer demand, inappropriate quality control and product handling.

Compounded by issues up the food chain, retailers don’t stand much of a chance. So, putting blame solely on the retailer can be misplaced. Freshness and quality of perishables will obviously vary, depending on where you live and where you shop. Some regions are better served than others.

But unlike shrinkflation, “shelflation” can be dodged.

Going to the grocery store once a week or once every two weeks may not be ideal — especially right now with current food supply chain woes. Visiting the grocery store two or three times a week and buying enough for the next two to three days may help you waste less.

We just need to approach our grocery shopping a little differently.

Sylvain Charlebois is a professor and senior director of the Agri-Food analytics lab at Dalhousie University.