“Sell by” and “best by” dates stamped on foods are not indicators of food safety, said Dana Gunders, food and agriculture staff scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
She is the co-author of a report issued by the council and the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic calling for changes to make the dates more useful. Currently, those dates are manufacturers’ suggestions for when an item is at its peak or are efforts to help stores manage their inventory.
Here’s what those labels mean, according to the report:
“Best by” or “best if used by”: the manufacturer’s estimate of when the food will no longer be at highest quality.
“Use by”: an estimate of the last date it’s at peak quality.
“Sell by”: the manufacturer’s suggested date to the grocer to no longer sell a product, based on the idea that it will still be good quality for a “reasonable” time if bought on that date.
Still, more than 90 percent of Americans say they use those dates to decide whether to discard food, leading to tons of wasted food each year, the report notes.
“I don’t know of any data that consuming a product beyond the date has caused illness,” said Ted Labuza, a professor of food science and engineering at the University of Minnesota who has studied shelf life for decades.
When food spoils, it might smell rotten, be slimy or soft or change color. Those are signs that food should be discarded, Labuza said.
In addition, food that is improperly handled, at any point from field or factory to table, can become a danger for illness, he said.
ActiveStyle, Pages 29 on 10/28/2013