Most of us don’t want to serve “outdated” food to our families, but we also don’t want to throw food away unnecessarily. So how can we keep ourselves and our families from getting sick from eating food that is past its prime of safety, but also not waste food?
- The only food product on which expiration dates are federally regulated is infant formula. Therefore, you should NOT buy or use baby formula after its “use-by” date, for both safety and nutritional reasons.
- Some states do require dating for foods, but other than infant formula, there is not regulated food dating system across the United States. Dates are put on products in a variety of ways. The United State Department of Agriculture (USDA) does provide the following definitions for various terms used on food product labels.
“Sell by” date: Tells the store how long to display the product for sale. You should buy the product before that date.- “Best if used by (or before)” date: Recommended for best flavor or quality. It is NOT a purchase or safety date.
- “Use by” date: The last date recommended by the manufacturer for the use of the product while at peak quality.
*Note that these dates generally refer to food quality, rather than safety. However, they can give a general idea of how long the food has been in the market.
- Many canned foods are required to have a packing code, which enables manufactures to rotate their stock and locate their products in the event of a recall. These codes are NOT meant for consumers to interpret in any way as use-by dates (unless they are clearly marked as a use-by date).
By: Jamie Rathbun
