Expiration Dates Explained
One essential way to reduce food waste is to figure out which expiration dates matter and which don’t—and to build your ability of using your eyes and nose (and sometimes taste) as a guide, a handy skill to have when you are developing your abilities as a home cook. Read more to have expiration dates explained.
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 the resources that went into producing that food. But what does “expiration date” really mean? Is the food definitely inedible? 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 have passed? Wait! Don’t food-panic…
Expiration Date Label Definitions
Some date labels are not that strict. This excellent overview by Consumer Reports breaks it all down, and we highly recommend giving it a read. The summary 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 for infant formula. Other than that, food product dating is completely voluntary, and producers tend to be extremely conservative, understanding that conditions in grocery stores and homes might not be ideal. Nevertheless, most consumers 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 retailers 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 this date, depending on the item. For instance, according to Consumer Reports, milk should last 5-7 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. 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? Well, it’s important to track how old a product is, so grocery stores don’t put old or bad food on the shelves. It matters to 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 have to buy. But it is also our responsibility as consumers to learn some common-sense guidelines for using all our food before it spoils by heightening our abilities to spot food that has actually, in fact, 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 dry pantry items (lentils, oats, etc.) it is more a question of taste than a matter of safety—e.g.: 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 impact is greater, 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, yogurt, or sour cream, you can usually just scrape the mold off and enjoy (the remaining product, 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:
| Item | Pointers for Preventing Food Waste |
|---|---|
| Canned Food | Avoid cans with bulging or popped seals. If they look OK, note that they can last as long as two to five years. |
| Boxed Stock or Nut Milks | Take a piece of tape (I keep a roll of masking tape and a Sharpie in the kitchen for this very purpose) and/or a post it and write what date you opened the box, since the use by date is often “two weeks after opening.” If it’s a little after two weeks since you opened it, pour it out into a bowl, smell and look for weirdness growing in it. Learn more about plant-based milks here. |
| Milk, sour cream, and Yogurt | Chilled properly, milk is usually good for about a week after its sell-by date. Yogurt and sour cream last slightly longer, two to three weeks unopened, or roughly 10 days once opened. Give it a sniff. Does it smell vinegary or has it separated out into clumps? If it does, it’s probably gone over. |
| Cheese | Depending on the variety, cheese lifespans range from one to two weeks for soft cheese like Brie or Chèvre, to six months to a year for hard cheeses like Pecorino and Parmesan. To keep cheese fresh, remove cheese sold in plastic wrap (which reduces shelf life because it traps in air and moisture), and rewrap it in wax wraps, recycled foil or cheese paper. Hard cheeses like Parmesan can be wrapped well and frozen. |
| Flours and Rice | White rice and white flour will last for years, but whole wheat flours and brown rice will only last a few months, thanks to the higher fat content in the unrefined grains. Store these in the freezer if you plan to keep them for longer than a few months, Here are some ideas for using up your surplus rice. |
| Nuts | If you keep them on the shelf too long, they go rancid. It won’t hurt you to eat them, but they taste awful. Avoid this by storing nuts in airtight containers in a cool, dry, and dark place. They can be used raw, but will have better flavor if toasted gently in a pan or toaster oven before use. Take a look at my recipes for candying your nuts. |
| Dried Legumes | Dried beans won’t go bad if you store them too long (they keep shelf stable for years), but older beans take longer to cook and cook less evenly. |
| Eggs | Don’t take them out of their carton and use the refrigerator holder. You could lose track of when you purchased them. Instead keep them in their carton and roughly follow the dates. |
| Condiments & Dressings | Write the date you open jars on a piece of tape or a sticky note. Refrigerated, condiments like mustard, mayonnaise, ketchup, pickled relishes, chili sauce and more can last for years. Avoid contamination by always using clean utensils to dip into condiment jars. |
| Oils | Oils stored in sealed cans, or dark, opaque glass will last years, whereas oils in clear glass jars or open bottles are more prone to spoilage. Keeping oils in a cool, dry, and dark place (away from the stove) will help them last longer. Keep flavorful nut oils and rendered animal fats refrigerated to better preserve. To test if oils have gone bad, smell it. Old oil will develop metallic, soapy or fishy smells. |
| Chocolate, Coffee, and Tea | If you find a thin white powder on your chocolate, you can ignore and eat away, it’s perfectly safe. The white powder, called bloom, just means temperature fluctuations may have caused some of the fats to rise to the surface. To keep this from happening, store chocolate (and coffee & tea) in airtight containers in a cool, dry, and dark place. |
What You Can Do
- Check out the USDA FoodKeeper app to maximize the freshness of food items in your kitchen.
- Learn more about food waste and why it’s important to be a part of reducing how much food we all throw away.
Sources:
Should You Follow Expiration Dates and Sell-by Dates?
https://foodprint.org/blog/should-you-follow-expiration-dates-and-sell-by-dates/
by FoodPrint 10/30/18