The Belfast Telegraph reports that,

“Four out of ten older people are putting their health at risk by not checking the use by date on food.”

This was determined by a survey of 780 people across Northern Ireland in April. At least the numbers were. I’m not sure why eating food past its use by date is considered risky?

Kathryn Baker from the Food Standards Agency says in the article that cases of listeriosis in the over-60 crowd have doubled in the UK since 2000. Is eating foods after their use by dates a contributing factor? The article doesn’t say.

Granted, use by dates in Northern Ireland mean something different than use by dates in the US.

I found that the Northern Ireland Food Labeling Regulations from 1996 require use by dates (as opposed to best before dates) on foods that are “microbiologically highly perishable and in consequence likely, after a short period of time, to pose an immediate danger to human health.”

As I scanned the list of foods included with that description, I noticed that several—soft cheeses, smoked fish, cured meats and prepared vegetable salads (such as coleslaw)—are products that Lianou and Sofos (2007) noted have been linked to outbreaks of listeriosis.

Has the FSA found it more likely that food contaminated with pathogenic Listeria will sicken someone after its use by date than before? It doesn’t take many Listeria bacteria to make an elderly person sick (less than 1,000 according to the FDA). Where is the data to support this stuff?

Baker told the Belfast Telegraph that the FSA was focusing an information campaign on food hygiene advice for this particular group of people. That campaign evidently includes telling everyone over 60 to follow food use by dates. Will they also be told why?

I’m certainly curious.