Expiration Dates You Can Totally Ignore
They’re no match for common sense—and they’re encouraging excessive food waste. (PHOTOGRAPH BY NBC/GETTY)
by Jean Nick + Rebecca Strauss, for Rodale’s Organic Life
Here’s the thing: You’re probably being tricked into wasting $1,500 of perfectly good food every year. According to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, an average family of four buys and then throws away more than 2 million calories every 12 months.
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All in all, nearly one third—31 percent—of all the food we produce in the U.S. is never eaten, in part because it’s been deemed expired. This inefficiency is serious business, and the USDA and EPA are leading a new initiative to cut our overall food waste in half by 2030. But why wait? A good place to start is to learn what the dates stamped on packaged foods really mean and stop throwing away perfectly good food.
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According to Andy Hirneisen, a Food Safety Educator at the Penn State Extension, perishable foods (things that you store in the fridge) usually carry one of three types of date: a “sell by” date, which tells the retailer how long to offer the product for sale; a “best if used by (or before)” date, which is set by the manufacturer to tell customers when quality and flavor are at their peak; and a “use by” date, a recommendation by the manufacturer. Nonperishable or shelf-stable foods may also have sell-by or use-by dates, but they may also have date codes stamped onto the box to help the producer and retailer keep track of inventory, manage the supply chain, and address customers’ desire to purchase attractive-looking and good-tasting food. “Food manufacturers don’t want consumers to use substandard products,” says Hirneisen, “where flavor, appearance, and texture are compromised.” But the dates aren’t required by law and are only companies’ recommendations.
In fact, the FDA only requires use-by dates on one type of food: infant formula. Beyond that, they allow stores to sell past-date food. The USDA notes that even after their sell-by date, “refrigerated products should still be safe if handled properly.”
The general rule is that any perishable food should not be kept between 40 degrees and 140 degrees for more than 2 hours. Outside this temperature zone, any bacteria that could make you sick that’s present on or in food can only develop very slowly, so keeping cooked or prepared food either cold or hot will prevent it from spoiling for as long as possible. And if it’s close to the expiration date? “Storing food in the freezer can extend the shelf life of most foods,” says Hirneisen, who notes that the extra-cold temps virtually stop bacteria growth. “Safety isn’t a concern. However, you will notice a degradation of quality over time. Some foods like fruits and vegetables require a blanching step before freezing to deactivate enzymes that will break down your food as it sits in the freezer.” And in general, most meats can be frozen for six months and most vegetables for a year before you will notice significant flavor or texture changes.
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Here are some general guidelines for how long after a food’s expiration date you can expect to be able to eat, cook, and keep refrigerated perishable food; after these dates you may want to freeze it.
Ground or thinly sliced raw meat of any type, as well as poultry, seafood, or fish: 1-2 days
Cooked food, including take-out, prepared foods, leftovers: 2-3 days
Larger cuts of meat like steaks, chops, roasts: 3-5 days
Cured meats, such as ham, that need to be cooked before eating: 5-7 days
Lunch meats, bacon, hotdogs: 14 days in unopened packages; half that once opened
Milk: 5-7 days, half that when opened, or as long as it passes the sniff test. Once soured, you can still use it in cooking and baking.
Yogurt: At least 1-2 weeks past the sell-by date. Unopened yogurt with live cultures can last far longer than that. In general, if it isn’t moldy, it’s still good.
Raw eggs in the shell: Depending on where you live, the date may indicate when they were laid, when they were packed (they may have been in ultra-cold storage for months before that), or have a use-by date.Eggs generally last 4-6 weeks from the lay date in a fridge, which translates to 3-4 weeks after packing or the use-by date. Hard-cooked eggs will last 5-7 days.
Soft cheese: 2-4 weeks, half that once opened. Toss it if you find any mold.
Hard cheese: 2-6 months, half that once opened. Chunks will last longer than shredded (as there’s less surface area to be affected by mold), and harder cheeses tend to last longer than softer ones. If you find any mold you can trim it off and still use the rest of a chunk.
Boxed, bagged, canned goods: Use-by dates tend to be in the 2-5 year range. If it’s past the date, just let your nose and your taste buds be the judge if something is still acceptable to you. Definitely discard any cans that are rusted, corroded, leaking, badly dented, bulging or deformed, as well as jars or bottles with broken seals without tasting the contents—these contain the biggest risk. Once a container is opened it should be stored as indicated on the label and used promptly (as soon as a few days for cooked foods like soup, or much longer for things such as very sweet or salty condiments).
This article was originally published on Rodale’s Organic Life.
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