Good Old Samoas?
Girl Scout Cookies' Lack of Expiration Dates Shouldn't Be Cause for Alarm, Experts Say

By Don Oldenburg
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 19, 2006

Know that old Girl Scout cookie joke? If peanut butter cookies are made from peanut butter, what are Girl Scout cookies made from?

Pretty dumb, I know. Besides, check that box of Girl Scout cookies in your cupboard or freezer -- you won't find "Girl Scout" on the food label, as federal regulations would require if such a thing were true .

Nor will you find an expiration or sell-by date the way you do on lots of other food products -- a fact reader Jim Koricki noticed recently when inspecting his Girl Scout cookie purchases.

"Should an organization like the Girl Scouts put that info on their packages? Maybe the law requires it?" wonders Koricki, something of an amateur consumer sleuth.

"I am a devoted expiration-date checker," he confesses. "When I find them [past their date] I go and get a manager or assistant manager and 99 percent of the time they take them off the shelves immediately. They are pretty good about that."

But no expiration or sell-by dates on those Thin Mints, Lemon Coolers, Samoas and Do-Si-Dos pose a problem for Koricki. "It is hard to come out of a business where [the Scouts] are outside and not buy from them," says the Rockville resident. "I figure Girl Scouts is a real good outfit. . . . But when I find products that do not have expiration dates, I do not buy them."

Driver's licenses have expiration dates, credit cards have expiration dates, prescription drugs have expiration dates. Hey, even sour cream has an expiration date! (That's an old joke, too.) But the only food items required by federal law to have expiration dates are infant formula and some baby foods -- which is because the feds are primarily concerned with potential hazards and, in the case of baby formula, nutritional and quality standards. Same for the various state laws that require dairy products and eggs to label expiration dates. Otherwise, products with expiration dates, sell-by dates, use-by dates and best-used-by dates are marked voluntarily by their manufacturers to guide consumers and retailers.

"Girl Scout cookies are not a potentially hazardous food from a food-safety perspective" so they don't require an expiration date, says food-safety expert Paul VanLandingham, professor of hospitality at Johnson & Wales University's Center for Food and Beverage Management in Providence, R.I.

About the worst thing that can happen to a Girl Scout cookie that's past its prime is that it gets stale. So in terms of consumer-protection laws, that's just how the cookie crumbles. "Stale means they are not going to be appetizing -- but not harmful," VanLandingham says.

Marion Swan, who directs communications and marketing for the Girl Scouts of the USA, says baked goods traditionally have a sell-by date, not an expiration date, to make sure the inventory moves off the store shelves quickly. "But Girl Scout cookies are sold and delivered within a very short and specific time frame, so there is no need," she says, adding that "Girl Scout cookies are best consumed within about six months of purchase."

Another reason the cookie boxes aren't dated is that the packaging is made in advance due to the design (different smiling Girl Scouts for each cookie type) and the boxes sometimes are used over two years. "But the cookies are produced fresh every year," says Laura Bassett, product sales specialist at the Girl Scouts Council of the Nation's Capital, which expects to sell more than 4 million boxes this year again. The cookie binge annually sells more than 200 million boxes nationwide and continues in the Washington Metropolitan area through April 1 when the last Girl Scout cookie booth closes shop.

What about cookies that don't sell? "If we do have leftover boxes, we donate them to a variety of organizations . . . from the Capital Food Bank to the USO for care packages," Bassett says. "We clear out that inventory.

Besides, those expiration dates aren't the big deal many consumers think they are. No matter that you'd turn up your nose at a product that's days past its date, stores aren't legally required to remove them from their shelves, VanLandingham says.

Looking over a box of Girl Scout cookies, he finds a seven-digit code on the box's bottom flap under the name of the cookie. "It means nothing to me, but I'm sure the people who boxed them would know how old they are from the code," he says.

Bassett confirms: "You can always call the baker to check on the production date of your box -- but people tend to consume them very quickly."

Default Boxes

Speaking of boxes, you know those little boxes at the end of an online order that they ask you to check to give permission to receive other offers and information? Or those "terms and conditions" boxes online that by checking you agree to have your credit-card charged monthly for a service?

Suspicious why sometimes those boxes are already checked? Well, it doesn't take a genius to figure that one out, but the result may surprise you: "Research has shown that subscription rates increase by a 2-to-1 factor when the box is already checked," says Trevor Hughes, executive director of the International Association of Privacy Professionals, which held a summit of 800 privacy experts here a week ago.

Presumably some people never get to the bottom of the Web page to uncheck the default box. And unchecking those boxes requires taking action -- which is harder than doing nothing. "It can have a real effect as to how many people say yes," says Hughes, citing a study conducted by Eric Johnson at the Columbia University's Business School.

Kid Cellphones

The recent column on unforeseen problems with first cellphones for children ("One Mother's Wake-Up Call," Feb. 12) rang a bell for lots of readers. Feedback ranged from tsk-tsks such as "Kids don't need cellphones 'cause they'll just abuse 'em" to complaints about carriers insisting they "can't block text-messaging on a child's cellphone . . . a big fat lie!"

Mike Stewart, an Internet technology project manager in Atlanta, e-mailed to share some lessons he learned from getting his 13-year-old daughter a cellphone that was an add-on to his existing Cingular family-share plan.

Besides establishing basic cellphone rules for his daughter, Stewart says he made sure he could put her new phone on hold if necessary -- meaning take it away. "I couldn't cancel [her phone] but I did find out I could suspend the charges indefinitely and reactivate later," he says. "This allowed me to revoke and allow privileges to the phone."

Next, he "completely blocked" text-messaging from her phone. Yes, it can be done. But note that Stewart's family plan includes text-messaging only as an option at an additional charge that he wasn't willing to pay. "This is too big a risk and temptation for teens," he says. "The purpose of the phone was to communicate with family and, secondarily, friends."

Finally, he says he informed his daughter that he can go online to the Cingular account site and check every call she makes and receives, when it was made, and for how long. "Daddy can watch what you do!" he says.

Current status of his daughter's cellphone: suspended. "Unfortunately, she still chose to disobey the rules of use and had her privileges temporarily revoked," Stewart reports. "But that's another issue. I'm just pointing out that you can eliminate the annoyance, concern and cost of text-messaging. Just say no. . . ."

Got questions or comments? A consumer complaint? A helpful tip? E-mail details to consumer@washpost.com or write to Don Oldenburg, The Washington Post, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071. Because of the volume of mail, personal replies are not always possible.