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What Do Food Expiration Dates Really Mean?


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what do expiration dates mean(Photo Credit: Peter Dazeley/Getty)

Ever wonder if you can still eat that bread, canned soup or frozen package of meat?  There are a lot of different types of expiration dates out there.  Some are pretty straightforward and some give you a little leeway when it comes to how long you can keep it on a shelf before you eat it.  Here is a breakdown of those terms to help you out:

Use-By Date (or expiration date): is the clear concise date you have to eat your food by.  If you don’t, it is no longer considered safe.

Best-Before or Best-By Date: is an estimate and usually found on things like Cereal, Snacks, Frozen Foods… You can usually eat food past the Best-Before Date and be fine.

Sell-By Date: is the date that is used for store and manufacturer purposes to help with inventory control. It is a date to help stores know when to have the food sold so that consumers have plenty of time to eat the product before its actual expiration date. In all honesty, it shouldn’t even be shown on packaging because it confuses consumers.

Baked-on Date: is the day the food was actually made.  Typically, you have 7 days to eat it safely before it starts to go bad.

The more you know the less you waste.  So before you start throwing out perfectly good food, make sure you remember these different expiration date terms and see if your food really is expired or not.

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11 Comments

  1. Thanks this was very helpful!! I’m a freak when it comes to expiration dates!

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  2. Good info! I also use eatbydate.com if I have a question about a specific product. Thanks!

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  3. The expiration date thing is mostly a total scam invented by manufacturers to scare the customer into believing something is “bad” and must be thrown out. Have you ever seen pictures of people’s garages and basements that are stock-piled with food storage items like salad dressing and other shelf stable items? I’m willing to bet that those 200 bottles of shelf-stable products have past due expiration dates, yet can be eaten without any negative effects.
    There is a store in Salt Lake City, UT that specializes in selling expired and out of date products, and the store is packed with food (more than half of their sales space). If there was anything wrong with eating products after their expiration dates had expired, this store would have been either sued for causing illness, or would be out of business because no one would purchase those items they sell. Yet every time I am in that store, the aisles are packed with customers…and there are no reports of illness or death coming from purchases at that store.
    I can tell when something is spoiled or shouldn’t be eaten. My senses tell me that, and are much smarter than a manufacturer that puts a random date on their products.

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    • Agree

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      • Ditto. However, I do like to have that information for reference. But, overall, I do believe it is a scam & that it is also somewhat rampage in prescriptions & over the counters medications too.

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  4. I’m more careful with medications, since chemical components can degrade and change over time, and I’m not familiar with it enough to know when they’ll do that, but canned and sealed food, etc. is perfectly fine six months to a year after the expiration date. When I first got married, I bought too many cans at caselot sales and ended up with way more than we used, so I did a lot of reading online about it and learned the above and this: Basically, if it’s within a year and you open it and it smells and looks great, it’s safe to eat. The vitamins and nutritional content start to degrade at some point, though, so stay within that extra 6 months to a year after the expiration.

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    • Obviously only do that if you’re in a bind like I was and don’t want to waste food. I’ve learned to plan better since then.

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  5. I read a story on KSL a little while ago about what Charles is talking about. They said that they don’t really enforce strict guidelines on the expiration dates and to look at it and make sure it looks and smells good. Even just a little taste if you aren’t sure. Dairy is one thing that I don’t mess with expiration dates on. Usually they’re right on with dairy. I swear with milk, the day it says it’s expired, it starts to smell and get chunky. Eww!!

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  6. You can also check on stilltasty.com to see how long things last etc. It’s a great way to check on things.

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    • Cool site! Thanks!

      It basically just boils down to plain good ole common sense. Perishable items (dairy, meat, etc.) most definitely go by the date. Believe it or not, many a times my milk has gone bad BEFORE the expiration date. If it looks & smells good, it’s probably OK but, better safe then sorry. As for canned & sealed items losing some vitamins & minerals, well, that’s probably true but, if you’re truly hungry, it could be better the nothing.

      As for medications, I was referring mainly to OTC items (aspirin, allergy, etc) & not so much Rx’s. It does depend on what kind it is. I take a couple that I feel aren’t affected.

      Reply
  7. I definitely stay away from expired mayo and dairy and sometimes meat. Everything else seems fine after expiration.

    Reply

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