Find out what expiration date labels on food actually mean, and discover ways communities and governments can lessen food waste.



Countries around the world waste huge amounts of food every year: roughly a fifth of food items in the US are tossed because consumers aren’t sure how to interpret expiration labels. But most groceries are still perfectly safe to eat past their expiration dates. If the dates on our food don’t tell us that something’s gone bad, what do they tell us? Carolyn Beans shares how to prevent food waste.

Lesson by Carolyn Beans, directed by Anton Bogaty.

This video made possible in collaboration with Speed & Scale
Learn more about how TEDEd partnerships work: https://bit.ly/TEDEdPartners

A special thanks to Roni Neff who provided information and insights for the development of this video.

Support Our NonProfit Mission

Support us on Patreon: http://bit.ly/TEDEdPatreon
Check out our merch: http://bit.ly/TEDEDShop


Connect With Us

Sign up for our newsletter: http://bit.ly/TEDEdNewsletter
Follow us on Facebook: http://bit.ly/TEDEdFacebook
Find us on Twitter: http://bit.ly/TEDEdTwitter
Peep us on Instagram: http://bit.ly/TEDEdInstagram


Keep Learning

View full lesson: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/foodexpir...
Dig deeper with additional resources: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/foodexpir...

Animator's website: https://antonbogaty.com
Music: https://www.campstudio.co


Thank you so much to our patrons for your support! Without you this video would not be possible! Khalifa Alhulail, Martin Stephen, Jose Henrique Leopoldo e Silva, Mandeep Singh, Abhijit Kiran Valluri, Morgan Williams, Devin Harris, Pavel Zalevskiy, Karen GoepenWee, Filip Dabrowski, Barbara Smalley, Megan Douglas, Tim Leistikow, KaHei Law, Hiroshi Uchiyama, Mark Morris, Misaki Sato, EdoKun, SookKwan Loong, Bev Millar, Lex Azevedo, Michael Aquilina, Jason A Saslow, Yansong Li, Cristóbal Moenne, Dawn Jordan, Prasanth Mathialagan, Samuel Doerle, David Rosario, Dominik Kugelmann theythem, Siamak Hajizadeh, Ryohky Araya, Mayank Kaul, Christophe Dessalles, Heather Slater, Sandra Tersluisen, Zhexi Shan, Bárbara Nazaré, Andrea Feliz, Victor E Karhel, Sydney Evans, Latora, Noel Situ, emily lam, Sid, Niccolò Frassetto, Mana, I'm here because of Knowledge Fight Facebook group., Linda Freedman and Edgardo Cuellar.