Misreading food date labels is one of the biggest causes of household food waste in the world. Billions of dollars worth of perfectly safe food is thrown away every year because people see a date, assume the food is dangerous, and bin it.
The truth is that different labels mean very different things — and most "best before" dates have nothing to do with food safety. Here's exactly what each one means.
The Four Labels Explained
Best Before
This is a quality date, not a safety date. It means the manufacturer guarantees the food will be at peak quality until this date — after which it might lose flavour, texture, or nutritional value, but it won't necessarily be unsafe. Tinned goods, dried pasta, cereals, frozen foods, and most packaged products use this label. A tin of tomatoes best before two months ago is perfectly safe to eat. So are biscuits, oats, pasta, and rice well past their best before date.
Use By
This is the one that matters for food safety. Use by dates appear on highly perishable foods — raw meat, fish, certain dairy products, and ready meals. After the use by date, the food may contain dangerous levels of bacteria even if it looks and smells fine. Do not eat food past its use by date, even if it seems okay. This is the label food safety authorities are serious about.
Sell By / Display Until
These are stock management dates for retailers, not safety or quality dates for consumers. They tell the supermarket when to remove the item from the shelf. The food is typically safe and at good quality for several days after a sell by date — the retailer just needs to rotate stock. You should not use these dates to decide whether food is safe to eat.
Packaged On / Frozen On
Simply tells you when the product was packed or frozen. Useful context for freshness — fish packed three days ago is older than fish packed today — but not a direct indicator of when the food becomes unsafe. Frozen items can be safely consumed well beyond reasonable estimates based on frozen-on dates, provided they've been stored correctly.
Foods That Are Safe Past Their Best Before
The following foods are routinely thrown away because of best before dates, but are almost always safe and usable past them:
- Eggs: 2–3 weeks past best before (float test: if it sinks, it's good; if it floats, bin it)
- Hard cheese: 3–4 weeks past best before if stored well (cut off any visible mould; the rest is safe)
- Dried pasta and rice: 1–2 years past best before with no safety concern
- Tinned goods: Years past best before — the date is extremely conservative
- Bread: Fine to eat until mould appears — then bin it completely, as mould spreads through bread invisibly
- Yoghurt: 1–2 weeks past best before if it smells normal and shows no mould
- Butter: Several weeks past best before if refrigerated and sealed
- Honey: Effectively indefinite — honey doesn't expire
Track every item's date — without the guesswork
Eatvora logs best before and use by dates for every item in your pantry and alerts you before things actually go off — so you use food in time, not bin it by mistake.
Download Free →The Smell, Look, Taste Test
For foods with best before dates (not use by), your senses are generally reliable guides:
- Smell: If it smells off, bin it. If it smells normal, it's almost certainly fine.
- Look: Visible mould means bin it (with some exceptions like hard cheese). Colour changes in fruit and vegetables don't mean they're unsafe — they might just be past peak quality.
- Taste: A small taste of something with a best before date that's passed is a safe test. If it tastes normal, it is normal.
For use by foods — raw meat, fish, ready meals — don't rely on senses. Harmful bacteria often produce no smell, no visible change, and no unusual taste. Respect the date.
How Much Waste This Causes
Studies consistently find that confusion over date labels causes 20% of household food waste in developed countries. Families throw away tens of billions of dollars of safe food per year because they see a date and assume the worst.
Understanding that best before ≠ dangerous and use by = take seriously is one of the simplest, highest-impact changes you can make. It costs nothing, takes no habit change — just knowledge. And now you have it.