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this post was submitted on 08 Sep 2024
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Print the food expiration date above the label barcode. Black ink on white background.
I would go with: Remove expiration dates entirely. Because it's not an expiration date, it's a "best before" date. Which when you think about it, it's true that food is "best before" literally any future date you put on the label.
Most of the factors that will cause food to spoil are things not under the control of the companies that package the food. How cold do you keep your fridge at? How long did it take for you to transport the food from the store to your fridge? What was the temperature that day? How long did you have it before you break the seal and start using it? How long was the food outside of your fridge? etc. etc.
Those things are just invented by a marketing department to encourage people to throw out food so they have to buy more. There are no regulations on it, they just put whatever date they think will maximize their profits.
You buy fresh fruit and vegetables (the things that will spoil faster than anything else you buy) there is no expiration date. How do you manage? Look at it, and maybe give it a smell test. The same applies for all food really.
"Best before" dates are a scam that results in food being thrown out prematurely. Grocery prices are too high, we shouldn't allow these kinds of shenanigans to drive prices higher.
Please don't die from this advice.
First: Yes, best before dates are sometimes arbitrary depending on the product and where you live. However, basically anything with a package sold commercially has been tested for taste/feel/look over time to determine when quality degrades. If you make cookies you don't want people only buying up 1+ yr old boxes and thinking your cookies are just supposed to taste like solidified disks of keyboard powder. Having a best before date tells people when your product tastes as intended and when it's only worth buying from the discount bin.
It's fair to say sometimes marketing bullshit influences that date.
Second: Expiry dates are a real thing, at least where I'm from. Fridge/freezer temperatures are meant to be within specific ranges and there are food safety regulations around how long certains items can be outside of those ranges - like for transport or during prep.
Expiry dates are based on testing the development of bacteria colonies/degradation of the ingredients in an average of settings one would expect those products to go through.
Just because something says it's expired doesn't necessarily mean it's unsafe, though. Except: in a commercial kitchen it is illegal to sell expired ingredients because of the testing that goes into determining that date.
I've worked as a chef, have taken multiple food safety courses, had good relationships with food inspectors. And I've worked in a production kitchen where the products were sent to testing facilities for determining the dates we put on the labels.