Dates on food

Note to all readers: I'm not a microbiologist, things I write in this post are my OPINIONS and EXPERIENCES, not necessarily legally or scientifically confirmed facts. I have NEVER had a food poisoning in my life, never. Neither have my children.

 Here in the outer rim of Europe, we have only three types of dates in our food/products.

One that is very rarely used is date of manufacture/packaging/harvesting. It is used on for example on strawberries on summer or wild fish (harvested 28/06/2026; fished on 27/03/2026) or on something, that is usually eaten on the very same day it is bought (and cooked). (you know strawberries can go bad very fast, so it is up to buyer to see how long they are edible)

More common is expiration date. It is a date after which something should no longer be used, either by operation of law or by exceeding the anticipated shelf life for perishable goods. To be honest, I rarely think expiration date as the the last date I will use that product. However, I want to strongly emphasize that I do not recommend anyone to use food after the expiration date! It requires knowledge and accuracy to be able to determine whether something is still usable - and this is greatly depended on how the product has been stored. Usually, the food ingredients that I use after the expiration date are, for example, dairy products, whose shelf life is already several weeks before that expiration date. And then there are products that are often spoiled BEFORE that expiration date, minced meat and especially minced chicken is one of them. So DO NOT USE food after it's expiration date, if you do not know what you are doing. However, the food does not spoil microbiologically in the freezer, its quality may suffer from long freezing, but it is microbiologically just as edible as it was when it was put in the freezer. And if it was spoiled before freezing, it will be spoiled after freezing too.

The best before date is exactly what it says. The product is at its best before that date (it’s often a month/year, not a day/month), but it’s still edible after that date. Depending on the product, it can be edible for years after the best before date. Who has ever noticed salt gone moldy? I use eggs several WEEKS after they best before- dates. And I store eggs on top of our dishwasher, at room temperature. Here eggs are not washed so they keep longer (here if eggs are washed, they can't be sold to consumers, only to food industry or bakeries). I'm not going to list here all products and how they must be stored and how long they will keep - internet is full of information on that. Some of which is total bullshit, pardon my french.

Then there's loose fruits and vegetables, and they have no date on them. It is up to me, you/whoever is buying and eating them to see if they are good or not.