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50 signatures reached
To: Minister of Health, National Consumer Commission, and South African Bureau of Standards
Fair Food Systems Start With Honest, Unified Expiry Date Labels
We are calling on the Minister of Health, the National Consumer Commission, and the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) to take urgent and coordinated action to reform food date labelling regulations in South Africa.
We demand the adoption of a single, unified expiry date label that clearly communicates food safety to consumers. The current system with overlapping terms like “Best Before,” “Use By,” and “Sell By” is confusing, inconsistently applied, and widely misunderstood. It leads to unnecessary food waste, puts consumer health at risk, and allows retailers and manufacturers to evade accountability.
South Africa needs a labelling system that is:
- Simple – easy to understand at a glance;
- Standardised – enforced across all retailers and food categories;
- Fair – ensures consumers can make informed, safe choices.
We propose a single phrase for public use:
“Safe to Eat Until: [Date]”
This phrasing prioritises health while also reducing waste of perfectly edible food.
“Safe to Eat Until: [Date]”
This phrasing prioritises health while also reducing waste of perfectly edible food.
We urge you to:
- Amend R.146 of the Foodstuffs, Cosmetics and Disinfectants Act to mandate unified date labelling.
- Engage the SABS to develop a national labelling standard enforceable across the food sector.
- Direct the National Consumer Commission to launch a public education campaign explaining the new label and how to interpret it.
This reform is not only administratively feasible, it is ethically overdue. Clarity in food labelling is a matter of public trust, food justice, and dignity.
We respectfully ask you to act now.
Why is this important?
Food date labelling may seem like a technical detail but in South Africa, it has real-life consequences. Every day, tons of perfectly edible food are thrown away simply because the labels are unclear. Meanwhile, millions of South Africans go hungry. A fragmented system of “Best Before,” “Sell By,” and “Use By” dates leaves people confused, cautious, or manipulated. What’s meant to protect consumers ends up doing the opposite - wasting food, enabling profiteering, and putting lives at risk.
By demanding a single, unified expiry label, clearly stating “Safe to Eat Until”—we are not just calling for regulatory reform but we are standing up for food justice. This is about protecting health, respecting dignity, and making sure people are not misled by technical language that benefits corporations more than citizens. It's about giving ordinary South Africans the power to make informed choices without interpreting the jargon of food science.
Governments and regulatory bodies may ignore isolated complaints but they cannot ignore a groundswell of united voices. When enough of us demand clarity, safety, and fairness, decision-makers will have no choice but to act. Join this petition to say: confusion is not protection, waste is not justice, and honesty should not be optional. Let’s change the system; one honest label at a time.