How often have you taken something out of your refrigerator and thrown it out solely because it was a few days after its best-by date or sell-by date or best-before date? These dates are entirely unregulated and created by the food manufacturers instead of by the FDA. In fact, among Americans, 60% of us are confused by these dates.
Since their main purpose is to provide manufacturers with a way to ensure that consumers will buy more of their product, a great deal of food with such dates can truly be eaten weeks beyond the given date.
As stated in an article in National Geographic, Roni Neff of the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future reminds us that, “in the U.S., date labels are not safety labels … they're used to indicate quality." Therefore, an unofficial smell test can often provide a more concrete answer than these ambiguous dates.