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History professor, food label expert featured in The Washington Post

Associate professor of history Xaq Frohlich was recently featured in The Washington Post’s Made by History series. His piece titled, “Mandatory date labels on food could end confusion and prevent food waste” discusses the history of food labels and helps consumers understand the differences between the types of labels. Frohlich writes that passing the Food Date Labeling Act would make it easier for consumers to determine when food becomes unsafe and could reduce food waste.

Frohlich is the author of the new book, “From Label to Table: Regulating Food in America in the Information Age” (University of California Press, 2023), a biography of the food label. From the early years of FDA food standards up to present-day efforts to modernize the Nutrition Facts panel, “From Label to Table” explores the evolving popular ideas about food, diet and responsibility for health that inform what goes on the label and who gets to decide that.

Frohlich earned his doctorate from MIT in 2011. He was a 2016-17 visiting fellow at the Institute for Historical Studies in the Department of History at the University of Texas at Austin, a Fulbright scholar in Spain, a visiting professor at the University of Vienna and Paris Dauphine University and a postdoc at KAIST in South Korea. Frohlich teaches the Technology & Civilizations core sequence, as well as courses on food and power, the intersections of science, technology and the law and the history of business and capitalism.

Tags: Research History