If reading food labels can be challenging, try to understand
the terminology used to warn consumers when a food item is no longer safe to
eat. Health Briefs explains the verbiage and what it means.
Can I eat this?
Most people look at or smell food to tell if it has gone bad
or not. In fact, we tend to toss food out if it starts to look bad, smells a
little off or may be moldy. Americans throw out 133 billion pounds of food per
year, according to the 2010
figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service.
So how can we tell if the food in the fridge is still good or is on the way
out? Most would check the expiration date. However, sometimes those are not so
easy to figure out. Health Briefs TV explains the wording actually means:
Sell by date is most important for retailers, telling them when they
should take a product off the shelves. However, it does not mean that the food
is no longer safe to eat.
Expiration date means a product should not be eaten after the date
listed; throw it out.
Best if used by date refers to the quality of the product, not its safety. In
short, it means that the product will maintain its maximum quality until that
date, but it can still be safe to eat for a certain amount of time (depending
on the kind of product) after the date has passed.
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