The Daily Valet. - 8/1/22, Monday

✔️ Expiration Dates Are a Myth

Monday, August 1st Edition

Cory Ohlendorf, Editor in Chief of Valet.

Please enjoy this newsletter while it’s fresh.

Cory Ohlendorf , Editor ⋯ @coryohlendorf

Today’s Big Story

Ignore Expiration Dates

A food safety researcher explains another way to know what’s too old to eat

There’s something very binary about the human experience. We don’t necessarily like rules, and we exist in a sea of grey areas, but we almost crave the simplicity of black and white. Right and wrong. Safe or unsafe. Which, I’m guessing, is how we got so invested in expiration dates.

You might think that date printed on the package is the absolute last day that food is safe to eat. But you’d be wrong. Of course, you wouldn’t be alone in coming to that mistaken conclusion, because the system behind food label dates is an absolute mess.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, “food product dating” is completely voluntary. As a result, there are a wide variety of phrases used on labels, from “Best if used by” and “Use or freeze by” to “Sell by” or “Enjoy by” to describe quality dates. Without a national standard for how those dates should be determined (or how they must be described), there’s just a patchwork system—a hodgepodge of state laws, best practices and general guidelines.

“It’s a complete Wild West,” says Dana Gunders, executive director of ReFed, a nonprofit trying to end food waste. And yet, “many consumers really believe that they are being told to throw the food out, or that even when they don’t make that choice, that they’re sort of breaking some rule,” she tells CNN. For food makers, sell-by dates actually are more about protecting the brand than safety concerns—the company’s estimate of when a food item will taste best.

The biggest consequence of this unclear labeling? Food waste. And lots of it. The FDA reported in 2019 that “consumer uncertainty about the meaning of the dates ... is believed to contribute to about 20% of food waste in the home.” And the USDA Economic Research Center reports that nearly 31% of all available food is never consumed. By some estimates, food loss and waste makes up 8% of total global greenhouse-gas emissions. While food prices remain historically high, the problem of waste seem all the more alarming.

But food does go bad. And tossing out a few eggs or pouring out some oat milk past its prime seems smarter than risking an unfortunate gastrointestinal incident. According to The Conversation, experts are calling for the elimination of dates aimed at consumers, citing confusion and waste. Instead, the research suggests manufacturers and distributors use “production” or “pack” dates, along with “sell-by” dates, aimed at retailers. In the meantime, food safety researchers say to trust your eyes and nose when deciding to eat or discard food that’s past its prime. Basically if it has a different texture or smell, it’s done. If not, you should be fine.

↦ FYI: Your COVID test’s expiration date is probably wrong. Here’s how long kits really last.

Pelosi Heads to Asia

She’s expected to proceed with a plan to visit Taiwan, despite some serious warnings

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is holding meetings in Singapore today as part of a swing through Asia—while questions still swirl around whether she would defy Chinese warnings with a stop in Taiwan.

Pelosi is leading a Congressional delegation to the Indo-Pacific and plans to visit places including Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan, according to a statement released by her office on Sunday. The statement made no mention of Taiwan, despite speculation in recent days that Pelosi might be planning to visit the self-governing democracy of 24 million people.

According to the New York Times, it would not be unusual to omit Taiwan from an announcement given security concerns, and White House aides said she was expected to proceed with the plan for the highest-level visit by an American official to the island in 25 years.

However, China's Communist Party, which claims Taiwan as part of its territory (despite never having controlled it) has warned against the visit, threatening a possible military response should she go through with it.

↦ FYI: The United States has maintained its ambiguous "One China Policy" for decades, neither accepting nor rejecting China's claims on Taiwan.

Wildfires Continue to Spread

McKinney Fire becomes California’s largest blaze this year, raging out of control

A wildfire in far northern California, near the border with Oregon, grew from ignition on Friday afternoon to become the state's biggest fire so far this year. Crews braced for thunderstorms and hot, windy conditions that created the potential for additional fire growth Sunday as they sought to protect remote communities.

The blaze exploded in size to more than 80 square miles just two days after erupting in a largely unpopulated area of Siskiyou County, according to a Sunday incident report. The cause was under investigation.

Oddly, on Friday and Saturday nights, the fire formed its own thunderstorms, known as PyroCb clouds, that sent smoke lofting 50,000 feet into the air. These clouds, which most closely resemble a nuclear explosion rather than a fire, are a telltale sign of extreme fire behavior—as flames outraced firefighters' attempts to contain them.

Scientists say climate change has made the West warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive.

↦ Meanwhile: Kentucky flooding has killed at least 28 people, as more rain and storms batter the region.

Stars, They’re Not Just Like Us

Celebrities with private planes are having to answer for their environmental damage

First it was Kylie Jenner, then it was Drake, and over the weekend, it was Taylor Swift in the hot seat for her reported private jet usage and carbon emissions.

For weeks now, the phrase “climate criminal” has been flying around with approximately the same frequency and speed as all these luxe PJs. And Twitter tracker bots have made the public scrutiny even worse.

Swift was named as the “biggest celebrity CO2 polluter” of 2022 so far, according to a new analysis by the digital marketing agency Yard. But it also lists athletes Floyd Mayweather and Alex Rodriguez, as well as Jay-Z. Their data reveals that the celebs on their list have emitted an average of 3376.64 tones of CO2 emissions in just their private jet usage in 2022 so far—that's 482.37 times more than the average person's annual emissions.

Swift responded to the report through a spokesperson, who told Rolling Stone, “Taylor's jet is loaned out regularly to other individuals. To attribute most or all of these trips to her is blatantly incorrect.” That didn't stop the memes, but it does make sense. And many of the short trips the celebs are being blamed for are simply a matter of parking the planes. Whether or not that absolves them of any responsibility, well, that's another conversation entirely. But let he who wouldn't fly private cast the first stone.

↦ Dig Deeper: One man’s lonely, lonely fight to ban private jets entirely.

In Other News

↦ The Midlife Crisis Is a Given, But the “Quarterlife Crisis” Is Real, Too.

↦ Parts of the Moon Have Stable Temperatures Fit for Humans, Researchers Find

↦ Why Old Spice, Colgate and Dawn Are Locked Up at Drug Stores

Other Things We’re Talking About Today

Bill Russell

The snackle box

Johnny Depp’s art

Where to Score Affordable Jeans

Good denim doesn’t have to cost a lot

When it comes to wardrobe staples, it doesn’t get more essential than denim. And because you wear them so much, you likely have a pair or two that need replacing.

Which is great because right now, you can find some good jeans for not much money—a welcome change from a few years ago when the only quality jeans were made using precious denim from famous mills that ultimately resulted in higher prices.

Maybe they're washed for a vintage feel. Perhaps they're actually secondhand jeans that are unbelievably soft. Or they could be dark and crisp with a touch of stretch to make them comfy enough to wear while relaxing at home. You can find them all now, and they just happen to leave plenty of money still in your pockets.

Our shopping editor Leon Hedgepeth has rounded up some great selections from quality brands and they all ring in under a hundred bucks.

↦ Read: Where to find the best affordable jeans right now.

What We’re Eyeing

Get to know your new favorite layering piece. Based on a Japanese haori jacket, this update from Akashi-Kama ($119) modernizes the traditional haori—tapering the fit for a modern silhouette and lightening it up for easy everyday wear. Cut and sewn in America from Japanese double gauze cotton milled in Osaka, it hangs on the body perfectly. It's somewhere between your favorite camp collar shirt and a lightweight jacket, which means it looks great thrown over a simple tee or tank and elevates any look.

↦ Want more? 5 stylish items to buy this week