Question: I have been wondering this for a while…what do the different food labels mean? Like Use By, Best By, etc. How long is food good after the use by date?
Answer: Great question, because the answer can really help you reduce the food waste your house produces! And if you can reduce food waste, not only will your food expenses go down, but also your carbon footprint. A little more info on food waste…
On average, Americans waste between 12-20% of what they buy, and America as a whole wastes about 40% of its food supply. Producing food that never gets used accounts for more than 25% of America’s consumption of fresh water, and also uses about 300 million barrels of oil per year. Not to mention all the methane that emerges when this wasted food rots (methane is a potent greenhouse gas)!
Luckily there are LOTS of ways you can reduce the amount of food you waste at home, from buying less to being more efficient with what you have lying around. Even having a good understanding of expiration dates and what they mean can really help. Here’s a start:
- Sell-By = a guide for the store to know how long it can display an item for sale (yogurt, milk, sour cream, and most other dairy products fall into the Sell-By category). This means that if your milk/yogurt/cheese doesn’t smell spoiled or look weird, it’s probably fine. I don’t even look at the date on my dairy products; I just trust my senses, especially with yogurt–which is kind of like fermented milk anyway, and usually tastes good for at least 2 weeks after the printed date on the container.
- Best Before or Best By = refers to the quality or flavor of the food. These phrases often appear on jarred or canned items (things like jam, salsa, nuts, oils, beans, juice) that last for years unopened, or a few months once opened. Again, use your senses to tell you if an opened item is still good (if your jar of salsa has mold on the lid and smells fermented, toss it — but if your jelly looks fine, smells fine, and tastes fine, it probably is).
- Use By = this is a true expiration date, after which it’s best not to use a product at all (like mayonnaise, meats, etc). But again, use your senses…both smell & sight, as well as common sense.
- Use or Freeze By = literally, use it or freeze it by this date; once it’s in the freezer, the product will last 3-6 months longer than the date, depending on the type of food. Here’s some more info on freezing, as well as a chart of foods and how long they each last in the freezer.
Remember, the things that give you food poisoning or make you sick are usually colorless, odorless, and tasteless – so you’re probably not avoiding illness by throwing away your 1-lb block of cheese that has a little (or even big) speck of mold on it.
Economist Magazine, Nov 26, 2009 (Source for statistics used in this post).
This is very helpful thanks!