Exposing Expired Foods in a Vulnerable Community: Public Health Confusion and Concern Around Food Expiration Labels

A study looking at the food environment in South Los Angeles conducted by the University of Southern California found a high rate of expired products primarily in lower income and inner city areas. Community Health Councils, Inc. (CHC), a health advocacy and policy organization developed the Neighborhood Food Watch (NFW) as a result of earlier assessments conducted by the African American Building a Legacy of Health (AABLH) Coalition that demonstrated South Los Angeles had comparatively fewer food markets than a comparison area, and fewer healthy food items. The coalition concluded that stores should be monitored for the quality of goods while it worked with other community-based groups to bring more food markets offering higher quality goods to the area. The NFW enlisted local residents to fill out checklists that measured the availability and quality of foods in their local stores. Residents returned their checklists to CHC who, working with researchers from the University of Southern California, compiled and analyzed the checklists. These findings are then discussed with the coalition, and used to formulate policy and programmatic responses. After the completion of the Neighborhood Food Watch Campaign, CHC developed an NFW toolkit to assist other underserved communities with developing a model to identify noteworthy policy or environmental strategies to address health disparities by improving the products and service quality in supermarkets. The toolkit provides a step-by-step outline of what residents can do to equip themselves with the tools needed to take action to improve the quality of food in local supermarkets.