Supply chain woes compromise food freshness at stores
Supply chain woes compromise food freshness at stores
February 3, 2022
Challenges along the supply chain compromise food’s shelf life at the point of purchase, especially for perishables
By Sylvain Charlebois
Professor, Dalhousie University
You have likely heard of shrinkflation, in which companies reduce the quantity of an item they sell you without changing the price. This packaging strategy has been going on for years and creates the illusion you’re buying the same amount of product.
And when supply chains aren’t working optimally, food products reach store shelves either less fresh than usual or a little too ripe, robbing consumers of some needed shelf life at home. This is called ‘shelflation.’
According to a recent poll by Dalhousie University and the app Caddle, 41 per cent of Canadians have thrown away milk in the past 12 months because it went sour before its due date. And 38.5 per cent of respondents have done so at least twice; for 22.8 per cent of those surveyed, it has happened three to five times.
Throwing away spoiled products before due dates has always happened occasionally, but such a high number of occurrences is quite unusual. Anecdotally, many Canadians have lately noticed some of their produce isn’t as fresh as it used to be, so it rots much sooner.
There’s no specific data on this and I suspect many Canadians haven’t noticed anything different.
But shelflation is quite common and pandemics aren’t the only way a product’s shelf life can be compromised. Delays due to weather, natural disasters (like we witnessed in British Columbia last year), labour disputes, massive recalls or equipment failures can disrupt a supply chain’s efficiency.
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