Summer Friday: How Food Date Labels Actually Get Made

You might be throwing things away before you need to

It’s happened to all of us. You grab that container of yogurt from the fridge, and just as you peel back the top, you see it: it “expired” three days before. So you throw it in the trash, along with the two containers sitting next to it.

But did you really have to toss them?

Americans throw away billions of dollars’ worth of good food each year, often because they misunderstand labels such as “best by,” “sell by,” and “use by.” What people don’t realize is that the dates are just suggestions and aren’t based on when food expires.

These voluntary dates are there to tell consumers and retailers when the product is expected to have the best flavor or quality, not when it’s safe to eat.

Two federal agencies — the USDA and the FDA — are responsible for keeping American food safe. Both agencies inspect food, chase down contamination, and oversee recalls. But with one exception, neither agency regulates “best by” or “use by” dates at all. (The exception is infant formula, where the “use by” date marks the period through which the product is guaranteed to contain the nutrients listed on the label.) Many perishables are good well past the date on the label if they’ve been stored properly and show no signs of spoilage. The USDA even says that the dates you commonly see on food products are not “safety dates.”

If a company voluntarily chooses to include a “best by” or “use by” date, however, the USDA does have something to say about it — namely, that the label cannot be misleading, and that the company should explain what it means.

Many manufacturers and producers use labels like:

• “Best if used by/before,” or when the product is expected to have its best flavor or quality.

• “Use by,” which has essentially the same meaning.

• “Sell by,” which is guidance for retailers on how long to display the product.

• “Freeze by,” or when a product should ideally be frozen to preserve its quality.

The terminology bloomed gradually. Before the 1970s, the food industry used what it called closed dating: codes stamped on packages for stores so they knew when to rotate stock.

But reading closed dates required a special scanner, and shoppers wanted dates they could read. By 1975, a national survey found that 95% of consumers considered date labels the most useful service a store could offer. Sellers were eager to oblige.

Before long the issue captured the attention of legislators. Efforts in Congress to require date labels began in the 1970s and continued for decades, but nothing passed since there was resistance from the food industry. For example, in 1974, the National Association of Food Chains told Congress the industry was already spending millions on labeling on its own, and that federal rules would only add cost and discourage further voluntary programs. Also, lawmakers could not settle on what type of dates to require, how to explain them to consumers, and what foods to cover.

Without federal legislation, some states decided to take on food dating themselves. Ten had mandated some sort of dating by 1973, and by 1978, 21 states and DC had rules.

But the confusion never really went away. In 2013, a Harvard study found the labeling mess had led to 90% of Americans throwing out food early because they misread a date as a safety warning.

So in 2016 the USDA again tried to do something about it. Its Food Safety and Inspection Service issued guidance recommending that manufacturers explain what their dates and terms meant. And in 2017, big grocery and manufacturing groups responded by launching an initiative to settle on just two phrases — “best if used by” for quality and “use by” for the cases involving food safety.

Simplifying the terminology would have benefits for the manufacturers, too. A company selling in all 50 states currently has to navigate dozens of conflicting state rules on a single product. FMI and the Consumer Brands Association, the successor to the grocery manufacturers’ group, now back the Food Date Labeling Act, a bipartisan bill that would set a single national standard and end the patchwork. In February this year, more than 30 companies and trade groups — Walmart, Amazon, and Unilever among them — signed an open letter urging Congress to pass it.

How do manufacturers settle on the various dates?

It’s part lab test, part taste test.

Manufacturers, or the labs they hire, store a product under realistic conditions. Trained tasting panels rate a sample’s look, smell, texture, and flavor on a scale, watching as quality deteriorates. Instruments — like a texture analyzer or a moisture-level reader — do the work a tongue and nose cannot.

The results depend on the food’s ingredients, how cold it stays as it rides through trucks and warehouses, and its packaging. Vacuum-packed meats and cheeses last longer because pulling the oxygen out starves the organisms that cause spoilage in foods. Airtight packaging also holds moisture in and keeps contaminants out.

To avoid waiting a full year to date a product with a long shelf life, the labs do accelerated testing. That means they store the food in hotter or more humid environments to measure how fast it breaks down and use the resulting information to estimate a real-world date.

What this means for you

Here’s a good example: A tub of ice cream that’s been sitting in the freezer for a year will probably be full of ice crystals. It may not taste very good, but it wouldn’t be unsafe to eat. The same is true of many other foods if they’ve been stored properly.

So treat most date labels as a guide to quality, not a hard deadline, unless you’re dealing with infant formula. If something looks moldy, smells sour, or has an unusual texture, it’s time to toss it.

One important caveat: some of the microbes that cause foodborne illness don’t change a food’s smell, taste, or appearance. That’s why proper refrigeration and safe handling matter just as much as the date on the package. And for higher-risk foods such as deli meats, egg salad, and chicken salad, it’s best to err on the side of caution. When in doubt, throw it out.