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When it comes to labels on food, there's no agreed upon wording to let consumers know when to toss packaged grocery items. Public confusion over how long they can keep and safely eat products is part of the reason Americans throw away roughly a third of their food -- about $161 billion worth -- each year.
Compounding the uncertainty for consumers about when to toss food is the array of descriptions producers use to signal a product's shelf life. Those include "use by," "sell by," "freeze by," "best if used before" and "expires on," leaving the public unclear on the safety of products and causing lots of perfectly fine food to get tossed.
[...] Looking to stem the tide of still-edible food that ends of in landfills, the FDA is backing a voluntary industry effort to standardize the "best if used by" wording on packaged food, saying it should curb consumer confusion thought to contribute to about 20% of food wasted in U.S. homes.
[...] Still, the FDA's guidance may not go far in clearing up the public's misunderstanding about labels, observers said. For one, the labeling only applies to food quality, not its safety.
[...] The [Grocery Manufacturers Association] and the Food Marketing Institute in January 2017 recommended making the phrase uniform, along with use of the "use by" phrase to indicate when food should no longer be eaten for safety reasons. In a letter to the food industry, the FDA said it would not address the latter phrase "at this time."
Predicting when food is past its prime is an inexact science, according to Kevin Smith, senior advisor for food safety in the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. He said consumers should regularly examine food in their kitchen cabinets or pantries that have passed their "best if used by" dates, and throw out if they've noticeably changed in color, consistency or texture.
"Food is much safer than it was a few decades ago, largely because of refrigeration and dramatically improved manufacturing processes. But to really address the problem with food waste, the FDA should tell people something more meaningful than open it, look at it, smell it, and if it seems OK, eat away, otherwise, toss," Steinzor added.
The FDA should instead define when foods become risky to eat based on shelf life and require those dates be disclosed, she said.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 25 2019, @10:47PM
BBFD means best before date.
As long as the foil lid seal is still production sealed, you're good to go for several months (at least two - I've never tried it past that) after the BBFD. I know this from experience and do it all the time. Grocery stores often sell yogurt for 50% off when it's approaching expiry so I buy it because I know it will last for much longer than they specify. It tastes and smells exactly the same as fresh bought. The consistency may need a stir because of settling but once mixed in, it's normal again. This is the same with sour cream too.
With sour cream and yogurt, it's the contact with air that causes a noticeable speed up in deterioration.
Blocks of butter can be bought in bulk and used for a long time after purchase too. Cheese that's not had it's package opened is good for a long time also. AND with cheese, if you cut off the moldy parts, you can continue to eat the non moldy parts for a long time afterwards also. I know this because I used to work in a deli at a major grocery chain growing up and that's what we did all the time, open the packages, cut off the moldy crap and then vacuum seal them once more, print out a new label and put it back on for sale once more.