Date-label perceptions, discount strategies, and food security: insights from South African retail consumers

South Africa simultaneously faces chronic food insecurity and mounting retail food waste, which is exacerbated by retail establishments that dispose of nearly expired products due to consumer misapprehensions surrounding date labels, such as “sell by” and “best before.” Focusing on how brand loyalty and risk tolerance shape purchase decisions, the misinterpretation of on-pack date labels such as sell-by and best-before prompts retailers to discard edible products, while financially constrained households struggle to afford nutritious diets. This study applies binary logistic regression to 205 survey responses gathered in low- and middle-income suburbs of Johannesburg to predict consumers’ willingness to purchase discounted near-expiry canned goods. The result indicates that brand loyalty (OR ≈ 5.9), habitual consumption beyond the labelled date (OR ≈ 26), and perceived product safety (OR ≈ 5.4) are stronger drivers of purchase than discount magnitude itself. The paper concludes that a trusted-brand discount programme, coupled with consumer education on date-label semantics, could meaningfully reduce waste while improving access to affordable food. This study contributes to the discourse on sustainable food practices by proposing data-driven interventions that align with both economic and environmental objectives.