CLF Sustainability Program Receives Lipitz Public Health Policy Award

Feb 28, 2014

A Center for a Livable Future faculty member is among three recipients of a 2013-2014 Lipitz Public Health Policy Faculty Award recently announced by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's Office of Public Health Practice and Training. Roni Neff, PhD, MS, director of the Center's Food System Sustainability and Public Health Program, and Assistant Scientist, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, was presented the award in support of the project, Addressing Food Waste Through Federal Policy: Focus Groups to Identify Optimal Language for Food Date Labels.

According to the Dr. Neff, Americans waste nearly 40 percent of food available at the retail and consumer levels. Evidence suggests that food date labels (e.g., use-by, sell-by), which play a key role in consumer decisions about when to throw out food, are frequently misunderstood. U.S.-based evidence regarding language for a revised system of food date labels is currently lacking. Dr. Neff and her team facilitated and analyzed focus group responses to test food date label language options. They considered quality-based and safety-based date labels and sought input on several label formats.

The Lipitz awards provide support for innovative, applied public health policy projects led by faculty and graduate students at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Projects may concentrate on any phase of the policy process, including policy development, implementation, or evaluation, as well as promotion of evidence-based public health policies.

Other recipients of this year's Lipitz Awards are Caleb Alexander, MD, MS, associate professor in Epidemiology and Meghan McGinty, MPH, MBA, CPH, doctoral candidate in Health Policy and Management.

For more information about the Lipitz Public Health Policy Fund Awards, please click here.