While prior research on food labeling has primarily focused on the content and clarity of expiration information, little is known about how the format of temporal information influences consumer behavior. This study examines the effect of digital shelf-life labels on consumer food waste and the underlying psychological mechanism.
This study employs two laboratory experiments and one field experiment to compare dynamic digital shelf-life labels with traditional static expiration labels, and to test the mediating role of present focus and the moderating role of food proximity to expiration.
Digital shelf-life labels significantly reduce consumer food waste compared to traditional labels. This effect is driven by a shift in consumers' temporal focus toward a present-focused temporal orientation, thereby promoting immediate consumption. Furthermore, the effect is contingent on food proximity to expiration, becoming stronger for products close to expiration but becoming insignificant for those far from expiration.
This study has several limitations that offer directions for future research. First, it does not fully explore interaction costs and trust in digital labeling. The labels’ effectiveness relies on consumer engagement, which may be shaped by scanning effort, perceived usefulness, privacy concerns, and trust in digital information. Future research can examine how these factors influence adoption and behavior. Second, while this study includes online and field experiments, some controlled scenarios limit external validity. Future studies could enhance ecological validity by testing digital labels in real retail settings or using actual household consumption data.
For governments and regulators, shelf-life labeling policies should shift from static date displays to dynamic, time-sensitive systems. Regulators can integrate digital countdown labels into official standards and use incentives to promote wider adoption within food waste reduction frameworks. For food manufacturers and retailers, digital shelf-life labels serve as cost-effective behavioral intervention tools. Adding QR codes or low-cost smart labels helps draw attention to near-expiry products and boost timely consumption, thereby reducing inventory losses and improving supply-chain efficiency while linking sustainability to business performance. For consumer education and public welfare groups, digital labels act as gentle but effective nudges to strengthen consumers' temporal awareness and food responsibility.
This study extends food labeling research from static information provision to dynamic temporal framing, and reconceptualizes food labels as cognitive cues shaping consumers' temporal focus. It further identifies present-focused temporal orientation as a key mechanism and food proximity to expiration as a boundary condition, offering a process-based explanation of how digital temporal cues influence sustainable consumption behavior.
