Steak, eggs, canned soup — all kinds of fridge and pantry staples have a best before date on the packaging. People often confuse best before dates with expiration dates, but the two labels tell consumers very different things.
'It's confusing,' says Ellie Topp, a professional home economist. '[The best before] date has nothing to do with the safety of the food. It has everything to do with the taste of the food.'
Here are five things you may not know about expiration and best before dates.
1. Only 5 types of products have expiration dates
Expiration dates tell consumers the last day a product is safe to consume. A food should never be consumed after the expiry date.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency mandates that only five types of products need to be labelled with an expiration date:
- Baby formula and other human milk substitutes.
- Nutritional supplements.
- Meal replacements.
- Pharmacist-sold foods for very low-energy diets.
- Formulated liquid diets.
Best before dates are found on foods that will only stay fresh for 90 days or less. Some foods may be consumed even if their best before date has passed, unlike an expiry date.
2. Best before dates guarantee freshness
An unopened, properly stored product's best before date tells a consumer how long that food will keep its flavour and nutritional value. It doesn't have anything to do with a food's safety, says Topp.
If someone fries or poaches a fresh egg, she says, it will stay together in 'a nice, little package.' If they use an egg beyond its best before date, it will spread out more and the yolk may be more likely to break.
'But, there's nothing wrong with the egg,' she says, 'as long as it's not cracked.'
The manufacturer's nutritional claims may no longer apply after a best before date or if the product isn't properly stored, says Cathy Paroschy Harris, a dietitian and spokeswoman for Dietitians of Canada. Orange juice may not provide as much Vitamin C and milk less riboflavin past the best before date.
Other items may have compromised taste, but still be safe to eat. Ketchups and salsas may be more acidic, dry pasta may break when cooked, and cookies at the back of the pantry may just taste bad. It's generally the taste, not safety that suffers.
However, foods must be properly stored according to package instructions to avoid turning mouldy or sour before their best before date.
3. Opened packages negate best before date
The best before date no longer applies if a package is opened or if the food is frozen, according to Health Canada.
Once a sealed product is exposed to air it can be cross-contaminated, says Brenda Watson, the Canadian Partnership for Consumer Food Safety Education's executive director.
The organization has a chart for how long different foods can be kept in a refrigerator or freezer. Watson recommends people purchase food with a short fridge life, like opened milk or cottage cheese, in quantities they're likely to consume quickly.
If a food is properly frozen two days before its best before date, says Paroschy Harris, it should be edible for another two days at the start of the thawing process.
4. Some foods to keep an eye out for
Even though some food remains edible — just less tasty and nutritionally dense — after its best before date, that doesn't mean all food is safe to eat when that date passes. Health Canada does not recommend eating anything after the best before date. The Canada Food Inspection Agency is more lenient.
When in doubt throw it out.— Ellie Topp, professional home economist
Generally, if the food changes colour or appearance, or develops a bad smell, it is no longer safe to eat. Dented, leaking or bulging cans should be discarded.
'When in doubt throw it out,' says Topp.
She's most cautious about cured meats, saying she would only keep deli meats, like baloney, a few days after purchase.
Frozen Food Expiration Dates Unopened List
Hungry snackers should throw away mouldy cheese, breads, yogurts and other foods. Topp says people used to feel comfortable scraping mould off the top of food and continuing to eat it. Nowadays, that's not considered acceptable, as mould is believed to contaminate food beyond what's visible to the human eye, she says.
'It's like playing roulette,' she says. 'You're putting yourself at risk.'
A best before date and proper food handling go hand-in-hand, she says, and even lower-risk foods can become problematic if not handled properly.
Chips past their best before date won't be as crunchy, but they also may become contaminated if people sharing them have dirty hands or double dip in the salsa bowl.
'There's always a risk for something in food to go awry,' she says.
5. Frozen veggies may be fresher in winter
Fresh doesn't always mean better.
Topp points out that fresh produce found in Canadian grocery stores during the winter may have less nutritional value than frozen vegetables.
It takes several weeks for produce to be picked and transported from warmer climates. As soon as someone picks a vegetable, its nutrients start to decline, she says.
Frozen vegetables, however, are usually frozen within hours of being picked. It's not a significant nutritional difference, she says, but frozen veggies may be more nutritious in the winter.
You can keep dry, boxed pasta for one to two years past its printed date.
Breakfast cereal lasts six to eight months beyond the date on the box when it's unopened.
No matter what date is on the carton, you can use eggs within three to five weeks of purchasing them.
Raw meat and poultry keep long past their sell-by date if you freeze them.
Appearance and odor tell you more about whether cheese is spoiled than the date on the package.
Leafy greens, including bagged salads, can be revived with ice water if they begin to wilt.
You can keep dairy milk five days or more past its printed date.
Unopened packages of frozen fruit and frozen vegetables are good for eight to 10 months beyond their printed date.
When unopened, yogurt will last two to three weeks in the fridge past the date on the container.
Unopened jars of peanut butter can keep for up to a year past their printed date.
Some condiments, such as ketchup and mustard, are good for a year or two beyond their printed dates if the bottles are unopened.
Specifically, do the rules change depending on whether the can/bottle has been opened, do they bear any relation to what is stamped on the outside of the container either before or after (or both) the time at which the container is opened? Does it depend on the specific product? I’ll use tomato juice as an example, as this is a real situation I just encountered and had to make a decision on, you can use that example, or use another product.
OK, so I had two identical plastic jugs of tomato juice. One had never been opened, but it had an expiration date about 1 to 2 months ago. The other jug of tomato juice was open and half gone and had an expiration date 13 months in the future. It did not look or smell funny, there was no detectable mold or fungus of any kind on the juice, but it was pushed to the back of my fridge, and I believe it to have been in there for a good 4 to 6 months.
So, would you in this situation…
a) use the bottle which SAYS it doesn’t expire for 13 months, even though you know it’s been open for 4 to 6 months and throw away the unopened bottle.
b) use the unopened bottle which SAYS it expired 1 to 2 months ago, because you trust that as long as it’s not opened, it would stay good, and throw away the open bottle.
c) use both bottles, the open one first and then the unopened one.
d) use neither and get some fresh juice at the store.
I felt more comfortable using the unopened bottle. What would you have done, and how do you regard printed expiration dates? Can some things be used a week, a month, a year after their date while others, regardless of the date you throw out x days after you open it? What are your rules?
23 Answers
Expiration dates are a guideline.
They’re basically intended to say “ok, if someone with only basic common sense is completely lax about taking care of their stuff, how long should this last?”
That’s why the expiration date on meat is yesterday, and why cereal can “last” for years.
In that situation, I’d probably ditch the old juice, just as a precaution and keep the unopened juice. If the expiration date on the unopened juice was several years ago, it’d be an issue, but a few months isn’t anything to worry about.
I do C all the time. If the food is notorious for salmonella (mayonnaise-based salad dressings, chicken, pork, etc.) then I keep them either frozen or refridgerated, period. If they are left out, they are thrown out.
But some expiration dates are for preservatives, not freshness. Tomato juice is one such item. There are preservatives in most of the brands that maintain color. The color fades after awhile, even if you never open the can. They don’t want people thinking that this is an accurate representation of thier color, so they use the shlef life of the preservatives as thier freshness date. They are perfectly drinkable. Canned vegetables are the same way.
Once the container is opened, expiration dates in the future are no longer valid. Depending on the item, the perishable shelf life can be as quick as 3 days and as much as 2 weeks. I would rather hazard on an unopened tomato juice that had an “expiration Date” of 1–2 months ago, than a container that was opened 6-months ago.
I’d check out the opened one. If all signs point to it’s fine, then I’d use it. Same process applies to unopened one. Packaged crap lasts a long time if they are sealed. There are often a lot of preservatives added to the product specifically for this purpose, and being airtight certainly helps. Once it is opened, the expiration date no longer applies. You have to use your senses to determine if it is still good or not. I am willing to go pretty far out on a limb on most foods, except dairy products of which I take no chances whatsoever.
Fuck it, if it doesn’t smell like death, good enough for me. I’ve eaten and drunk things that were expired up to a year ago and it was still good.
Depends what of course, but a lot of things like canned goods keep for a long time when they remain unopened.
I drink beer beyond the “freshness date.” Like it matters with Coors Light…
Expration dates represent the shelf life for the unopened item. After that, it’s the old scratch and sniff test that’s the most valid.
@Dog Haha I do too. I love when the store is trying to get rid of its outdated beer, and they sell two dusty 750ml bottles of nine percent for under ten books…those fools know not what they do! XD
I gave my mother-in-law prune juice that had been open in my fridge at the back for gawd knows how long. It made her stomach sick so I had a better look at what was left. It had fermented into bad booze! No mold.
I didn’t mean it but I wasn’t altogether sorry!! Mean woman- bigoted.
Bottles might be questionable. As far as cans anything post 1957 as long as they are unopened. You need something in the bunker.
I usually avoid to use product that is about to expired in 6 months. It’s better to prevent than to cure. If it’s just a can of tomato you can dispose it(assume it has been eaten/stolen by someone). It’s cheap and you won’t feel guilty for saving your healthiness.
FWIW – thanks to all. I had already made the decision, but I was curious what other people do. In this case, I wanted to use a couple cups of tomato juice for chili. I dumped the one that was in the fridge, because I assumed that the April 2011 expiration date was really more if it hadn’t been opened, being a plastic bottle and not a metal can, I thought it was probably the safest bet, since the juice was already half gone anyway and generic to boot, it wasn’t all that expensive. So I used the one that expired late January 2010 but which hadn’t been opened. I did indeed boil the chili for a long time, not out of fear, but just to thicken it, and no one got sick, nor did it taste bad in any way.
@dalepetrie
Actually the can is your safest bet. Canned food is hermetically sealed and can last for many years. And the can is made of stuff that we already have in our bodies unlike the plastics. I’ve eaten canned food 5 years old with no ill effects.
@SeventhSense – I’ve heard that. I remember seeing on some show, I think it was the History Channel’s Life After People, that there is still canned food at the encampment at the North Pole from an expedition over 100 years ago that would be edible. That and fruit cake…it would be edible after 100 years because of the alcohol.
Expiry dates on canned & bottled food refer to storage time if unopened. There would be further instructions printed on the label (usually) for instructions on storage time after opening. Usually something like “once opened, keep refrigerated and use within 3 days”.
Things like ketchup or mustard will keep for ages even opened. Half a can of soup, I wouldn’t keep more than 3 days once opened.
Canned food keeps decades unopened. My basic rule of thumb is ignore the date and just go by smell. If it’s gone off it’s usually because there was a tiny hole in the can, and you will be able to tell when you open it. You’ll want to leave all the windows open and not set foot in the kitchen again for a month.
@downtide
Mustard…my Lord I have mustard from the Civil War that I’m pretty sure is still good…now the sauerkraut..meh…
If you open a sealed food container, you let bacteria in, making it perishable.
Canned foods will last practically forever but all of the nutritional value disappears in 10–20 years depending on how nutritious it was in the first place. It will still be a source of life-sustaining calories in a pinch.
To go with inspection or printed date goes largely to the product with me. Certain things have a long shelf life even if opened like syrup and honey. Dairy products I would ditch the quickest because they go bad quicker. In your case I would inspect the tomato sauce that was not yet expired. As you say no discernable odor, visible mold or change in texture I would use it, but I would have also used the unopened one also. If your fridge was at the right temperature and the paste was closed properly I believe it is one of those items that has a bit of shelf life (not everything does but some way more than others.) The posted date is a CMA from the food packers and such so they can say we were not the fault when the fool poisoned himself with outdated food he should have tossed.
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