Americans are trashing perfectly good food – will better labeling minimize the waste?

If the food in your fridge is expired, you'd likely throw it out. But a Get Gephardt investigation finds that, in doing so, you are likely trashing perfectly good food. At the center of the problem is confusion over what the “expiration dates” printed on food actually mean, experts say.The confusion is understandable. The labels don't seem to have any consistency.Taking a day for 'investigative shopping' around several local grocery stores, on packaged food, Get Gephardt found a date was almost always printed. But that date was preceded by a gambit of words and phrases.Shoppers will see “Sell by,” “Use by,” “Eat by, “Expires on,” “Enjoy by, “Best before, “Guaranteed fresh,” as well as other phrases – or sometimes just the date printed all by it’s lonesome.