Research done by Emily Broad Leib, a professor at Harvard University, showed that younger adults are overly precocious about throwing out food. The article says people should be more reliant on their common sense versus the label on the packaging, as it is nearly impossible to predict a date at which the food will be unsafe. Almost 90 percent of 2,000 Americans surveyed said they were confident in their understanding of food labels, but their answers suggested something else. A previous survey in 2016 found that 37 percent of respondents said that they “always or usually discard food near or past the date on the label,” with that number rising to 43 percent in this most recent survey. The proportion also became higher the younger the participant was.

https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/food-drink/article/trust-your-senses-over-best-before-labels-to-cut-food-waste-6nrcl205x