Should You Follow Expiration Dates and Sell-by Dates?

It’s heartbreaking to spend money on quality ingredients and then discover you haven’t been able to use them up by their expiration date. It’s a waste of money and a waste of all of the resources that went into producing that food. But what does “expiration date” really mean? Is the food definitely inedible? And what’s the difference between a “sell by” date and a “best if used by” date? What will happen if you eat something after those dates pass? [Insert food panic here].

One essential way to reduce food waste is to figure out which sell by/expiration dates matter and which don’t — and to build the skill of using your eyes and nose as a guide, handy to have when you are developing your abilities as a home cook.

Expiration Date Labels: Best-by Date, Sell-by Date and Use-by Date Definitions

Date labels are, in some cases, not that strict. This excellent overview by Consumer Reports breaks it all down, and we highly recommend giving it a read. The short story is that, for a lot of foods, those dates are a rough suggestion. In fact, the only federally regulated food date label is the one required on infant formula. Other than that, food product dating is completely voluntary, and producers tend to be quite conservative, understanding that conditions in grocery stores and homes might not be ideal. Nonetheless, most shoppers and home cooks use these dates to gauge freshness and quality. If this is you, here’s a look at what the terms really mean:

Best by date: This date guarantees the period of time the product will be at its best flavor or quality — when bread will still taste soft or crackers crisp. The food will still remain edible after this date, it is not about food safety, but about taste.

Sell by date: This date is determined by producers to inform sellers when to remove items from the shelves. The goal is to ensure consumers receive the item at its optimal quality, which can last for several days to several weeks past the date, depending on the item. Milk for instance, according to Consumer Reports, should last five to seven days past its sell-by date if stored properly.

Use by date: This is the last day the producer guarantees the best quality of the product. Again, except for the case of infant formula, this is not a safety date nor a mandatory label.

So why does the food industry use expiration date labels that don’t need to be strictly adhered to? Of course, it’s very good to track how old a product is, so supermarkets don’t put old or bad food on the shelves. And it behooves them to be conservative, both because they don’t want their customers getting sick and because the faster you throw out their product, the more of it you’ll buy over time. But it also behooves us as consumers to learn some common-sense guidelines for using all our food before it spoils and heightening our abilities to spot food that has actually gone bad.

Preventing Food Waste by Understanding What Date Labels Really Mean

If you’re willing to let sight and smell be your true guide, you might be able to extend the life of your food and have less of it — and your money — end up in the trash. For some foods, like pantry items (lentils, oats, etc.) it is more a question of taste than a matter of safety — i.e. your lentils won’t taste as yummy, but they’ll be edible past their expiration date. For more perishable items like dairy, eggs, meat and seafood, the stakes are a bit higher, but you can usually tell something is wrong, by sight, smell and/or touch. Often, it’s a simple question: Is there mold growing on it? And if it’s cheese, you can usually just scrape the mold off and enjoy (the remaining cheese, not the mold).

Here’s what to look for when figuring out if some common foods that have passed their expiration date have spoiled, as well as tips for keeping track of how long they’ve been in your fridge:

Top photo by Adobe Stock/By Luis Castro.