One Small Step: Check your expiration dates

Posted 16 March 2009

Cleaning out your cupboards and fridge is something you should do on a fairly regular basis, but let’s be honest, most of us don’t until some kind of funky smell permeates our kitchen.

Or the fact may be you have no idea just how many items in your cupboards and fridge are out of date if they’re non-odorously going off.

Just because foods or condiments don’t smell doesn’t mean you should consume them. Nobody wants to drink spoiled milk, but what about those old spices? Are they okay?

And just what do those dates mean anyway?

According to the Food Standards Agency:

The 'Use by' date is pretty self explanatory, and used for fairly perishable foods. Once past the date, don’t use it, even if it looks and smells fine, as spoiled food could cause food poisoning. However, if it looks and smells bad before the use by date, sadly it still has to go.

'Best before' dates are usually used on foods that have a longer shelf life such as frozen, dried or canned foods. It should be safe to eat food after the 'best before' date, but as it says on the can, food will no longer be at its best.

In addition, foods may be labelled 'eat within a week of opening.' In this case you have to follow whichever comes first, for example, if the 'use by' date is tomorrow, and you opened it today, then you must use the food by the end of tomorrow. Similarly, if you opened it a week ago, but the due date is a few days later, it’s still got to go at the end of that week.

'Display until' and 'sell by' dates are for shop staff instructing them when they should take a product off the shelves.

As for your own shelves, once looking inside you may decided a full-scale fridge cleaning is in order.