Expiration dates are not actually expiration dates! According to a study by Harvard Law School, U.S consumers and businesses throw out billions of pounds of food annually due to the confusion caused by the expiration date labelling practices. Additionally, more than 90% of consumers discard food prematurely (even though they are still perfectly edible and safe for consumption) due to them misinterpreting the expiration date labels as food safety indicators. It induces paranoia among consumers, that once the food goes past the expiration date, it's not safe for consumption and should be thrown out. Expiration dates are variable and set by the producers.
Types of food labels;
• Pack date: The day the product was manufactured.
• Sell-by date: A note to retailers about when to pull a product from the shelves. It is also an indicator of the date by which the grocer should sell the items while still in its peak freshness. It’s still safe to use after this date, but grocers generally remove it because consumers won’t trust it.
• Best-if-used-by date/use-by date: This is a note to consumers and is typically later than the sell-by date would be. It indicates when quality and taste start to decline, although the product is still edible after this date.
As long as the food is stored properly in the fridge, the food can actually still last (longer than you think) after it's 'expiration date'. In a news report with Emily Broad Leib, the Director of Harvard Law School's Food Law and Policy Clinic, and co-author of the new study, she mentioned that: "The big take-away from our study is really, these dates are not regulated and most people think that they have meaning, but in fact, at the federal level, the only food that has rules about date-labels is infant formula. Everything else is made up by states and by companies, there's… really no legal definition around them."
The important thing is to make sure that the leftover food is stored properly! Trust your judgement, use your sense of sight and smell! Use the expiration dates as a guide, and this can prevent unnecessary food waste :)
Before I end off, here's a useful link - http://www.stilltasty.com/searchitems/search_page
The ultimate shelf life guide!!! It gives you the shelf life for common groceries + tips on how to store it properly.
Till then!
References:
HARVARD FOOD LAW AND POLICY CLINIC. (2013) The dating game: how confusing food date labels lead to food waste in America. [Online] September 2013 Available from: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/foodpolicyinitiative/files/2013/09/dating-game-report.pdf [Accessed: 18/10/2015]
LAURA SCHWECHERL. (2015) What expiration dates really mean. [Online] 16 April 2015 Available from: http://greatist.com/health/meaning-expiration-dates [Accessed: 18/10/2015]
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