Don't Be Afraid, it's Okay to Test that Best Before Date

Since when did the expiration, use by and best before dates on food become like the zero hour on a time bomb?

You know the feeling, it's one day after the expiration date and already you're smelling it, tasting it, looking at it sideways with your arm outstretched and circling it from a distance like a tiger on the prowl.


Wait -- I'll let Seinfeld explain it, no one encapsulates this dilemma better than he does.





Good news, Seinfeld can stop panicking. It turns out we don't have to be so paranoid. Well, I still wouldn't test the unknown waters too far with milk, but it turns out other foods can last weeks and even months after that date branded on the side.
See, to really understand whether your food is safe to eat after the date on the side, it's important to understand what they really mean. Keep in mind, that except for infant formula and

Sell By - This is literally the last day a food item is at its peak and optimum freshness, taste and consistency. If stores do not sell it by this date, they will pull it from the shelves. However, it's still safe to eat after this date.

Best Before - This is just another expression of when a food may slip in terms of quality, such as when oil starts to separate from peanut butter, yogurt starts to get slightly more sour or chips start to go a tiny bit stale. It does not mean that the food is not safe to eat, though health Canada doesn't recommend it. Foods that stay fresh for 90 days or less are required to have a 'Best Before' date, but most manufacturers put one on even if they don't have to. The date only applies before the item has been opened and is also invalidated by freezing the item.

Use By - This is pretty much the same as the 'Best Before' date and is a symbol of a possible time when food will start losing its optimum freshness, but it is only a ballpark and food is still good for a little while afterwards.

Expiration Date - Meal replacements, infant formulas, nutritional supplements and liquid diets all have expiration dates. The expiration date indicates the date after which the food begins to lose its microbiological stability and nutritional content. After that, it's truly not safe to eat, so don't try it and throw it out.

So, okay those stupid dates don't necessarily mean what everybody and Jerry Seinfeld think they mean. But then, if the food is still good, the next question becomes, for how long? Is it truly a race against the clock?

Well, Jerry Seinfeld's extra carton of milk will last five to seven days after it is opened and even longer if you freeze it. Plus, if you store eggs in the coldest part of your refrigerator, they can last three to five weeks after the 'Best Before' date.

More true expiration information can be found below, courtesy of the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service:


If that's not enough, the UK-based website Love Food, Hate Waste has a useful freezer guide that will teach you how to save your food even longer in your freezer and Still Tasty has a giant Keep It or Toss It? database, which features thousands of your favourite foods, how long they will last and how long you can store them.

Remember that 'Best Before' dates are only guidelines and although all food with a freshness shelf life of 90 days or less are required to have them, what they actually are is up to the manufacturer. Packaged and canned goods don't even need to display such a date, but often do, even though they can truly survive way past it.

A writer from The Telegraph suggested that manufacturers set the date early, so that consumers will throw food away thinking it is expired and buy more.

"The dates are decided by the manufacturers after testing and some would certainly have an interest in setting these dates at conservative levels. After all, the more we throw away, the more we buy," wrote Rose Prince.

Food waste is just as much a problem here in Canada as it is in the UK and U.S. We waste $27 billion on food annually, while studies in the UK say that one-third of the food in that country is thrown away, usually while still in its original packaging.
In the U.S. it's even worse because they waste $165 billion annually.

In the UK it was determined that the English threw away the average weight of a person (150 lbs) in food a year. This prompted the UK government to clarify their food dating system.

Of course, such clarification has yet to be common knowledge in Canada or the U.S. Canada hardly ever sees 'Use By' or 'Sell By' dates and yet we're still confused with just 'Best Before'. The amount of wasted food is enough to make you go freegan.

The fact that they can even find fresh food in the dumpster -- so much, it's like going shopping -- really is a barometer on how pervasive the food waste problem really is. Even if you could care less about the food, think of all the money you can save just by knowing what the dates on your food really mean.