The influence of expiration date on purchase and consumption decisions of food products

The work investigated the influence of expiration data on attitudes, purchasing decisions, and food consumption. Twelve interviews and one survey (n=199,whose data were submitted to a factorial analysis, test t, and analysis of variance (ANOVA), were carried out. The results indicated a relationship between the knowledge on conservation and consumption, on validity and consumption of food, but not with the consumption of expired foods, nor the relationship between risks, purchase, and consumption of expired food. They also indicated that the interviewees seem to base their decisions more on the appearance of food and their personal experience than on the perceived risks on expired validity. This indicates the need for educational actions to make the expired validity an issue of influence on purchase decisions and food consumption.