cheryl
Administrator
Staff member
13 Foods That Are Still Safe to Eat After the Expiration Date - Eat This
Wait! Don't throw out that food just yet. Just because it's days (or weeks) past a food's expiration date doesn't mean it's not still safe to eat.
Keep it or toss it? Every food you purchase has a shelf life. With the exception of fresh produce that isn't sold in a package, virtually all food items are marked with some type of expiration date giving the consumer an idea of when they should be eaten.
However, those dates—whether they're denoted by "use by," "sell by" or "best by"—are only intended to serve as guidelines and don't actually indicate food safety. Instead, they provide a general estimate regarding when a particular food is at its peak quality. That means that basically everything can be enjoyed beyond the date you see on the packaging. (Baby formula is the only exclusion. It has a federally regulated expiration date and must be consumed within a given time period.)
Still, as you may have guessed, the period between an expiration date of some sort and when food actually goes bad varies depending on the food itself and how it is stored.
Wait! Don't throw out that food just yet. Just because it's days (or weeks) past a food's expiration date doesn't mean it's not still safe to eat.
Keep it or toss it? Every food you purchase has a shelf life. With the exception of fresh produce that isn't sold in a package, virtually all food items are marked with some type of expiration date giving the consumer an idea of when they should be eaten.
However, those dates—whether they're denoted by "use by," "sell by" or "best by"—are only intended to serve as guidelines and don't actually indicate food safety. Instead, they provide a general estimate regarding when a particular food is at its peak quality. That means that basically everything can be enjoyed beyond the date you see on the packaging. (Baby formula is the only exclusion. It has a federally regulated expiration date and must be consumed within a given time period.)
Still, as you may have guessed, the period between an expiration date of some sort and when food actually goes bad varies depending on the food itself and how it is stored.