Have you ever stood in front of your fridge, staring at a carton of milk dated two days ago, wondering if it’s really gone bad? Or tossed out yogurt because the date passed, even though it looked perfectly fine? You’re not alone in this. Millions of people throw away perfectly good food every single week because they misunderstand what those little dates actually mean.
Here’s what most shoppers don’t realize. The people who work in grocery stores know things the rest of us don’t about those expiration dates. They understand the system, the loopholes, and how much wiggle room really exists. Let’s be real, these workers are stocking, rotating, and marking down products every single day, which gives them insider knowledge about what’s truly expired and what’s just reached an arbitrary date.
Those Dates Aren’t Actually About Safety
With the exception of infant formula, food product dating is completely voluntary for all products in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The dates act solely as the manufacturer’s best guess as to when its product will no longer be at peak quality, whatever that even means. Store workers see this confusion play out constantly when customers refuse to buy anything close to the printed date, even though the food is completely fine.
A “Best if Used By/Before” date indicates when a product will be of best flavor or quality and is not a purchase or safety date, while a “Use-By” date is the last date recommended for the use of the product while at peak quality. Think about it this way: manufacturers want their products tasting absolutely perfect, so they’re conservative with these dates to protect their brand reputation. Date labels are not federally regulated, except for infant formula, and they are set by food manufacturers to keep their products moving through the store shelves.
Stores Mark Down Items Days Before the Date
Supermarket employees know exactly when to apply those discount stickers, typically several days before the actual date on the package. Some Kroger stores reportedly discount items within 48 hours of their “sell by” date by 50 to 75% off. Many shoppers don’t realize that these markdown items are some of the best deals in the entire store.
Walmart offers discounts on meat, produce, bakery, and grab-and-go items, typically around 30% off, with some as high as 40% off. The secret? Many grocery stores receive fresh meat shipments on Thursdays or Fridays, prompting them to discount older stock before the weekend rush, and shopping early gets you first dibs on markdowns. Workers learn these patterns quickly and savvy shoppers who befriend store employees often get tipped off about the best markdown times.
Thirty Percent of Food Gets Wasted Because of Date Confusion
The USDA estimates that 30 percent of the food supply is lost or wasted at the retail and consumer levels. That’s a staggering amount. One source of food waste arises from consumers or retailers throwing away wholesome food because of confusion about the meaning of dates displayed on the label, according to federal food safety officials.
It’s estimated that 9 out of 10 Americans are wasting edible food based on these ambiguous expiration dates, according to a 2013 report by the Natural Resources Defense Council. Opaque dates reportedly led to around 1.45 million tons of household food waste in 2023, per ReFED data. Store workers see bins full of tossed products every single day, knowing that most of it could have been consumed safely or donated.
The Sell By Date Is Actually for Store Workers, Not You
A “Sell-By” date tells the store how long to display the product for sale for inventory management. It’s basically a note from the manufacturer to the store saying when they should pull it off the shelf to make room for fresher stock. Yet somehow, consumers have gotten confused and think this date means the food instantly becomes dangerous after that day.
Eggs can stay good for up to three to five weeks past the “sell by” date if stored properly in a refrigerator in their original carton and placed in the coldest part, not in the door. Milk is generally good for at least five to seven days after its “Sell by” date, though this depends on proper storage and pasteurization methods. Grocery store employees know these guidelines by heart, yet customers panic and throw out perfectly safe products the moment that date passes.
Some Stores Don’t Mark Down Anything at All
This might surprise you, but some U.S. retailers have no real markdown processes in place, which means they’re tossing massive amounts of fresh food and missing out on vital sales. Instead of discounting, Trader Joe’s doesn’t discount food near the use-by date and instead donates 100% of products that go unsold but remain fit to be enjoyed.
Research showed that 12% of the retailers visited were not using any markdowns at all, and the inference is that stock was going straight to disposal, was donated, or repurposed once it reached its expiry date. Some high-end grocers prefer maintaining a premium image over maximizing sales on soon-to-expire items. Workers at these stores often feel frustrated watching perfectly edible food head to the dumpster when it could be feeding people.
Different States Have Wildly Different Rules
In Idaho, milk can be sold more than 20 days after it’s pasteurized, while in Montana it’s just 12 days, even though the science is the same. This inconsistency proves these dates aren’t based on hard safety data but rather on varying state regulations and manufacturer preferences. Store workers moving between states notice these discrepancies immediately.
U.S. date labels are largely unregulated like the Wild West, with Walmart finding 47 different varieties of date labels in use among its suppliers, and with the exception of infant formula, no federal legislation or regulations on date labels exist. There is no national law in the U.S. regulating date labels on products, and date-labeling laws and regulations differ from state to state, according to Harvard Law School’s Food Law and Policy Clinic.
Your Senses Are More Reliable Than Any Date
Experienced grocery workers rely on their senses more than printed dates when judging food quality. Food safety experts urge consumers to rely on their senses, saying “If it looks fine, smells fine and tastes fine, it’s probably fine”. Think about how humans survived for thousands of years before expiration dates existed. We used our eyes, noses, and taste buds.
The best test is with your nose, because if the food product smells bad, it probably is bad. The quality of perishable products may deteriorate after the date passes but the products should still be wholesome if not showing signs of spoilage. Store employees learn this quickly when they’re handling hundreds of products daily, developing an instinct for what’s genuinely spoiled versus what’s just past an arbitrary quality date.
The grocery industry keeps these realities fairly quiet because they benefit from faster turnover and more frequent purchases. Smart shoppers who understand these secrets can save hundreds of dollars yearly while reducing food waste. Next time you’re about to toss something based solely on the date, take a moment to actually inspect it first. You might be surprised by how much perfectly good food you’ve been throwing away.
