Food Insecurity and the Value of Best if Used by Dates

Food insecurity affected 10.2% of United States households in 2021. While food pantries offer free food to households in need, prior research suggests that stigma may prevent households from utilizing this valuable resource. The purpose of this study is to investigate a potential additional barrier to food pantry used posed by the near-to best if used by dates (BUBD) commonly found on foods donated to foodbanks. If food pantry users perceive this food to be less valuable, even though it is still safe for consumption, they may not be willing to accept the food even when it is free. Data for this project came from an online convenience sample collected by Qualtrics in March 2022. Respondents were asked to give their open-ended willingness to pay (WTP) for bagged salad and meat lunch contingent on three BUBDs 7,5, and 3 or 57, 41, and 30 days in the future respectively. 738 and 600 respondents were included in the analysis of salad and lunch meat WTP, respectively. Preliminary results show that consumers tend to have high WTP for bagged salad with more BUBD; for EDBP, consumers need a greater discount as compensation to accept bagged salad or turkey lunch meat with less BUBDs.