Abstract
In 2018, several Norwegian food producers added a new phrase to date labels of packaged foods: best before (date), often good after. Why and how did they do this? By using two concepts from Actor-Network Theory, translation and script, this article reveals how a seemingly simple addition to a label can reveal underlying issues and policies. This case study sheds light both on how the script of the date label was used to translate UN Sustainable Development Goal 12 about food waste reduction into everyday use and practice and how the date label moved from the domain of food policy making towards the realm of environmental politics.
Highlights
In January 2018, the largest Norwegian dairy company, TINE AS, held a social media poll on their Facebook page asking followers to choose wording options for a supplementary phrase that would be added to the original expiration date label of food, best before
“If political rationalities render reality into the domain of thought, these ‘technologies of government’ seek to translate thought into the domain of reality” (Miller & Rose, 2008, p.32). This is an ongoing process: “for an actor-network to be extended over time and space, for power to be exercised at a distance, the actor-network has to be constantly produced and reproduced in socio-technical relations” (Beveridge & Guy, 2009, p. 73)
The date label can be conceived as a double script: it is literally a script, printed on the package but it contains a script, prescribing a specific understanding and use
Summary
In January 2018, the largest Norwegian dairy company, TINE AS, held a social media poll on their Facebook page asking followers to choose wording options for a supplementary phrase that would be added to the original expiration date label of food, best before. They asked their followers: What do you vote for? Unforeseeable for the makers of the original date label, it changed how consumers perceived and used food products Following what they thought is the prescription of the shelf-life time rather than their own senses, consumers often discard food prematurely. By using two concepts from Actor-Network Theory, translation and script, I will show why and how this move has happened, who the important actors were and what this tells us about the underlying politics of the time
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