The Hidden Truth About Date Labels
Your morning routine might include checking expiration dates while grabbing that carton of milk, but here’s something that’ll shock you – all those dates on food products – sell by, use by, best before – almost none of those dates indicate the safety of food, and generally speaking, they’re not regulated in the way many people believe. You’ve been living in a food dating fantasy without even knowing it!
The reality is that most of these labels are nothing more than the manufacturer’s educated guess about when their product will taste best. Think of it like this: it’s similar to a restaurant recommending when to eat their leftovers – it’s about quality, not whether you’ll end up in the emergency room.
What These Confusing Terms Really Mean
“Best if Used By/Before” – The product will have the best flavor or quality within this date. It is not a purchase or safety date. “Sell-By” – This date tells the store how long to display the product for sale, helping with inventory management. So when you see “sell by” on that package of ground beef, it’s basically the store’s internal reminder system.
“Use-By” – This date is the last date recommended for the use of the product while at peak quality. Use By: This is the last date that guarantees the best quality of a product. Here’s the kicker though – This is also not a safety date except when used on infant formula. That yogurt sitting in your fridge three days past its “use by” date? It’s probably still perfectly fine.
The Massive Scale of Date Label Confusion
Get ready for some jaw-dropping numbers. More than 90 percent of Americans may be prematurely tossing food because they misinterpret food labels as indicators of food safety. That’s right – nearly everyone you know is throwing away perfectly good food based on these misleading labels.
Confusion over dates, according to a survey by the Food Marketing Institute, leads nine out of 10 Americans to needlessly throw away food. For the average family of four, this could translate to several hundred dollars’ worth of food being thrown away every year. We’re talking about serious money here – money that could stay in your pocket instead of ending up in the garbage can.
The Financial Impact on Your Wallet
the average household of four is losing $275-455 per year on food needlessly trashed. That’s basically throwing away a vacation every year! Studies suggest that the average family of four may spend significant amounts each year on food that ends up uneaten.
But wait, there’s more. Full implementation of the Food Date Labeling Act would help contribute a net financial benefit of $3.6 billion annually, most of which would stay in the pockets of American households. Imagine what you could do with that extra money – maybe finally take that cooking class or invest in better storage containers.
Understanding the Temperature Danger Zone
While date labels might be confusing, temperature is where food safety gets real. Bacteria grow most rapidly in the range of temperatures between 40 °F and 140 °F, doubling in number rapidly, potentially in as little as 20 minutes under optimal conditions. This isn’t about dates on packages – this is about actual safety.
Leaving food out too long at room temperature can cause bacteria (such as Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella Enteritidis, Escherichia coli O157:H7, and Campylobacter) to grow to dangerous levels that can cause illness. So that pizza you left on the counter overnight? That’s actually dangerous, unlike your “expired” canned soup.
How Manufacturers Actually Set These Dates
According to a report from the NRDC and Harvard University, manufacturers typically use methods such as lab tests and taste-testing to set these label dates. But consumers have no way of knowing the background. In many cases, dates are conservative, so if you eat food past that date, you may not notice any difference in quality, especially if the date has recently passed.
It’s like having a friend who always shows up thirty minutes early to everything – they’re being extra cautious, but it doesn’t mean disaster strikes at the appointed time. For the vast majority of food products, manufacturers are free to determine date shelf life according to their own methods.
The One Major Exception You Must Know
Here’s where things get serious – at the federal level, the only food that has rules about date-labels is infant formula. Baby formula is the only product where the expiration date actually relates to safety and nutritional value. Everything else? It’s basically a suggestion.
With an exception of infant formula (described below), if the date passes during home storage, a product should still be safe and wholesome if handled properly until the time spoilage is evident. This means your nose and eyes are actually better safety inspectors than those printed dates.
What Your Senses Tell You That Dates Cannot
According to Sana Mujahid, Ph.D., manager of food-safety research at Consumer Reports, the best way to know whether a perishable food has spoiled is simply to “trust your taste buds and sense of smell.” Spoiled food will usually look different in texture and color, smell unpleasant, and taste bad before it becomes unsafe to eat.
Your ancestors didn’t have expiration dates, yet somehow they survived without poisoning themselves. They relied on what you still have – the ability to detect when food has gone bad through sight, smell, and common sense. That sour milk smell? That’s your warning system working perfectly.
Special Rules for Eggs and Their Dating System
Eggs have their own weird dating world. Egg cartons with the USDA grade shield must display the “pack date,” the day eggs were washed, graded and placed in the carton. This number is a three-digit code that represents the consecutive day of the year starting with January 1 as 001 and ending with December 31 as 365.
When a “sell-by” date appears on a carton bearing the USDA grade shield, the code date may not exceed 30 days from the date of pack. So that carton of eggs might be fresher than you think – or older than the sell-by date suggests, depending on when they were actually packed.
The Business Side: Why Stores Remove “Expired” Food
an estimated $900 million worth of expired food is removed from the supply chain every year. While not all of this is due to confusion, a casual survey of grocery store workers found that even employees themselves do not distinguish between different kinds of dates.
Even the people working with food every day don’t understand the system! It’s like having a GPS that everyone uses but nobody knows how to read properly. Stores throw out perfectly good food because they’re just as confused as consumers, creating a massive waste cycle that affects everyone’s grocery prices.
Government Efforts to Fix the Dating Disaster
The “Best if Used By” label aims to lessen consumer confusion and reduce wasted food. In addition, the “Best if Used By” label was the most frequently perceived by consumers as communicating quality, among the food date labels assessed by researchers at Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future (CLF), which supports standardizing this label.
On Jan. 3, 2025, USDA FSIS and the FDA extended the comment period by 30 days for the joint Request for Information (RFI) on industry practices and preferences for date labeling, research results on consumer perceptions of date labeling, and the potential impact of date labeling on food waste and grocery costs. The comment period officially closed on March 5, 2025. Change is coming, but it’s moving slower than milk going bad.
Smart Shopping Strategies for Date-Savvy Consumers
When you’re shopping, focus on the packaging integrity rather than obsessing over dates. Look for dents, tears, or swelling in canned goods – these are actual safety concerns. Check that frozen foods are solid and dairy products are properly refrigerated. The fridge should be 5°C or below. You should not overfill your fridge as leaving some space between products allows the cold air to circulate and maintains the temperature you have set your fridge to.
Buy what you’ll actually use, not what has the furthest date. That carton of heavy cream with a date two weeks out won’t help you if you need it for tonight’s recipe and it’s been sitting at room temperature for three hours because the store’s refrigeration broke down this afternoon.
