full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Carolyn Beans: Food expiration dates don't mean what you think

Unscramble the Blue Letters


To avoid all this waste, many experts advocate for laws to reqirue that date labels use one of two setadraindzd phrases: “Best if used by,” to indicate freshness, or “Use by” to indicate safety. This solution isn't perfect, but some US researchers emiatste that setting these standards at a federal level could prnveet rugholy 398,000 tons of food waste annually. Grocers could also try rovenmig date llabes on produce, as several UK supermarket chains have done to encourage consumers to use their own judgement. Many experts also aaotcvde for policies incentivizing grocers and rtaaertsnus to donate unsold food. Currently, csuiofnon around dates has led at least 20 US states to restrict donating food past its labeled date, even though the federal government actually protects such donations. Countries like France go even further, requiring that many supermarkets donate unsold food.

Open Cloze


To avoid all this waste, many experts advocate for laws to _______ that date labels use one of two ____________ phrases: “Best if used by,” to indicate freshness, or “Use by” to indicate safety. This solution isn't perfect, but some US researchers ________ that setting these standards at a federal level could _______ _______ 398,000 tons of food waste annually. Grocers could also try ________ date ______ on produce, as several UK supermarket chains have done to encourage consumers to use their own judgement. Many experts also ________ for policies incentivizing grocers and ___________ to donate unsold food. Currently, _________ around dates has led at least 20 US states to restrict donating food past its labeled date, even though the federal government actually protects such donations. Countries like France go even further, requiring that many supermarkets donate unsold food.

Solution


  1. roughly
  2. prevent
  3. advocate
  4. estimate
  5. restaurants
  6. labels
  7. standardized
  8. confusion
  9. removing
  10. require

Original Text


To avoid all this waste, many experts advocate for laws to require that date labels use one of two standardized phrases: “Best if used by,” to indicate freshness, or “Use by” to indicate safety. This solution isn't perfect, but some US researchers estimate that setting these standards at a federal level could prevent roughly 398,000 tons of food waste annually. Grocers could also try removing date labels on produce, as several UK supermarket chains have done to encourage consumers to use their own judgement. Many experts also advocate for policies incentivizing grocers and restaurants to donate unsold food. Currently, confusion around dates has led at least 20 US states to restrict donating food past its labeled date, even though the federal government actually protects such donations. Countries like France go even further, requiring that many supermarkets donate unsold food.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
food waste 3
date labels 3
donate unsold 2
unsold food 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
donate unsold food 2

Important Words


  1. advocate
  2. annually
  3. avoid
  4. chains
  5. confusion
  6. consumers
  7. countries
  8. date
  9. dates
  10. donate
  11. donating
  12. donations
  13. encourage
  14. estimate
  15. experts
  16. federal
  17. food
  18. france
  19. freshness
  20. government
  21. grocers
  22. incentivizing
  23. judgement
  24. labeled
  25. labels
  26. laws
  27. led
  28. level
  29. perfect
  30. policies
  31. prevent
  32. produce
  33. protects
  34. removing
  35. require
  36. requiring
  37. researchers
  38. restaurants
  39. restrict
  40. roughly
  41. safety
  42. setting
  43. solution
  44. standardized
  45. standards
  46. states
  47. supermarket
  48. supermarkets
  49. tons
  50. uk
  51. unsold
  52. waste