Canadians taking more risks to avoid high grocery prices

It is no secret that grocery prices in Canada are high.

Sylvain Charlebois, who studies food distribution and policy at Dalhousie University, joined the Evan Bray Show to discuss some of the ways people trying to save money on groceries.

Charlebois said some people are taking risks with their food to save a few extra dollars.

“Fifty-eight per cent of Canadians are now eating food beyond their best-before dates,” said Charlebois. “More so than 12 months ago.”

Charlebois reminded people that “best before” doesn’t mean “bad after.”

“It depends who you are, (and) it depends on your health situation,” he said.

But eating foods that are past the best-before date does come with the potential for getting sick.

Charlebois said one in five Canadians who ate food after the best-before date reported feeling ill.

“You can see a lot of people out there feel that they have fallen ill just because they ate something bad,” said Charlebois.

“They felt that they didn’t have much of a choice, (because) they couldn’t afford to buy more food … But the reality is, if you do fall ill, it’ll cost you even more,” Charlebois said more people are freezing their leftovers now.

“Twenty-four per cent of Canadian households have bought a new freezer in the last year,” said Charlebois.

“Some of that number is people replacing their freezer … but some have acquired a freezer for the first time.”

Charlebois said one upside to high food costs is that rates of food waste continue to decrease.