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Sunday, September 22, 2013

Use-By Date Confusion Is Making Us Waste Millions Of Pounds Of Food Every Year

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Use-by dates and expiration dates aren’t strict mandates designed to save you from the brink of gastrointestinal hell, they’re more like guidelines. A new report from the Natural Resources Defense Council and Harvard Law School’s Food Law and Policy Clinic says American are chucking millions of pounds of perfectly good food in the midst of expiration date confusion. That’s quite a waste.

Just because the expiration date is on food doesn’t mean the food itself expires at the stroke of midnight on the date and turns into something unsafe to consume, notes Time.com. Food dating exists to indicate the freshness of the food, when that product will be at its peak. Can an expired food make you sick? Yes, but usually not immediately upon the date indicated.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

most say "best by date"

guess we don't know what that means unless we go to UMES , then we can get food stamps forever. yo mamma , bro.

just the companies that make the product are to blame.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this post.I'll show my wife.She panics when milk is ONE DAY over the expiration date.

Anonymous said...

I ate a 2010 frozen Smithfield pork roast this week. Still alive & kickin'!

Anonymous said...

Why would they say this now the schools will think they can serve expired milk in the cafeteria they already serve ones that are a month old and smell rotten now they'll serve some that are older than that.

Anonymous said...

I personally use the smell by date. If it stinks, I throw it out. Simple.