Many of us regularly check the dates on our food products to determine if they should stay in the fridge or pantry, or get chucked. However, if you find food labels to be a bit confusing, you aren’t alone. The truth is that there are no universally accepted dating descriptions, and so there’s a variety of dating terminology used on our food products.
Though expiration dates can be useful for consumers, many of us don’t realize that commonly used food dating phrases indicate when a product has reached its best flavor or quality — not when it can no longer be safely consumed. In fact, research has found that 20 percent of consumer food waste is caused by date labeling confusion.
Most food products can be kept past their dates if they are handled properly, so resist the urge to toss out expired food without checking to see if it’s still perfectly good. Here’s a list of 10 food products that are fine to eat past the expiration date as long as they’ve been properly stored:
From “best if used by” and “sell by” to “expiration date,” getting a better grasp on exactly what the various terms on your food packaging mean can be beneficial in more ways than one. Check out our article, “Food Education: What the Dates on Your Food Really Mean” for deeper explanations of food label terminology.
Here are three perks of understanding your food labels:
Using expiration dates merely as a rough guideline and knowing what to look for to make sure your food items are still completely safe to eat will result in your grocery store overhaul lasting longer in your household. By using up most of if not all of the food that you purchase, the amount of money that you spend on food will be lower in the long run.
So much perfectly good food is thrown out in America on a daily basis. In fact, the U.S. ranks as the second most wasteful country in the world, wasting 150,000 tons of food each day.
Spreading public awareness about food label terminology and their meanings, knowing how to properly store food items, and understanding that many foods are fine to eat past their dates can significantly reduce food waste.
Growing and shipping food uses a massive amount of resources, including water consumption and carbon dioxide emissions associated with transporting food and raising livestock. According to the USDA, agriculture uses 80-90 percent of water consumption in America. With stats like these, it’s easy to see how the consequences of food waste impact the planet. Reducing your food waste will reduce your carbon footprint and benefit the environment.
There are many things you can do to ensure that your food stays fresh for as long as possible. Check out these eight easy tips for prolonging freshness:
Food items that are close to or past their indicated package date are often still safe to eat. Arming yourself with a thorough knowledge of package dates and other commonly used label terminology will help you get more bang for your buck when grocery shopping. If each of us does our part to toss out less food, it will create a ripple effect and result in tangible improvements to our excessive food waste problem.
Looking for more food dating information? Check out the Feeding Westchester “Food Dating Guide” and the USDA’s food product dating page.
