Best Before Dates – Relax, They Are Not So Scary!
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It occurs to me that some information on best before dates, and how they differ from use by dates, might be helpful especially so as to avoid food waste. So here goes …
Best Before Dates Meaning
Best before dates are to advise when a product will be past its best peak of perfection; it may have lost a little flavour or texture. This does not mean that it is not to be eaten.
According to The Foods Standards Agency
“The best before date, sometimes shown as BBE (best before end),
is about quality and not safety. The food will be safe to eat after this date
but may not be at its best. Its flavour and texture might not be as good.”
So, this is something you can easily decide for yourself. If you don’t mind your bread being stale (some great ideas for stale bread here!) for instance then go for it.
In my experience many, however, some foods still have some considerable way to go after their best before date before even reaching their prime, let alone past it. For instance rock hard avocados that were not ripe for another week or so!
Update
This post was published some while ago but I wanted to include the following to prove my point!
I recently found abandoned in the back of the fridge a pack of little gem lettuces which I bought, reduced, on 9th November because that was their last “best before” date. Today is 10th December and they were absolutely, deliciously, fresh and crunchily fine, 4 weeks and 3 days after the date they were supposed to start deteriorating!
I had originally bought them to make me Greek salad but at the time had no Feta cheese to hand so forgot about them. Pathetic! Today when I found them I had the cheese. I then also found some tomatoes I had bought for the same purpose. They were “best before” 1st November and this is their state today, 10th December, after 5 weeks three days of spoiling!
Either I have a magic fridge or these dates are seriously inaccurate!
Some things seem to be given best before dates for no apparent reason! Take cheese for instance. Making cheese is a method of preservation in itself and, as rule, hard cheese keeps much longer that is implied. I recently saw a block of Mature Cheddar for sale with only a week or so left according to the label. I wonder what was going to happen at the end of the week! See here for what Pong Cheese has to say about Use By and Best Before Dates for Cheese.
I have also bought fresh growing herb pots in the supermarket that have had fairly short best before dates despite the fact that they are healthy growing plants!
And what about honey? Apparently real honey keeps forever. yet it has a best before date!
After time honey can crystallise, but this is absoltely fine! See here for how to uncrystallise honey or make lovely creamed honey with it.
I do wonder if this is, sometimes, a cunning plan to make people buy more food. If so then it is certainly working. According to Wrap £19bn worth of food is thrown away anually in the UK and a lot of this can be attributed to food being discarded when it reaches its best before date.
I think this is sad – people with the best intentions, worried about food safety and trying to take care of themselves and their loved ones are being misled into throwing away perfectly edible food. Please don’t discard anything purely on its best before date, have a look, a sniff and taste and then decide what to do with it.
Use by Dates ~ Meaning
Use by dates are a much more serious matter concerning food safety and avoiding food poisoning. These dates concern perishable foods such as fresh meat and fish. If a food has a use by date then you should not use food after its that date even if it looks and smells and even tastes fine. The bacteria that cause food poisoning have no smell or taste. If something is coming up to its use by date then eat it, freeze it or cook and freeze it immediately!
Display Until and Sell by Dates
These two are nothing to do with us, they are for stock control purposes.
Wise Food Storage
Of course, if you store your foods correctly, they will have a much better chance of lasting longer. It is obviously a good idea to follow any instructions given on the label such as “refrigerate” or “eat within two days of opening”. See here for how best to organise your fridge and here about how to store eggs which, oddly enough, depends on where you live! See here for details plus the egg freshness test and ways to cook eggs. Also see here for Love Food Hate Waste’s information of storing different foods.
I am sure they are absolutely right in their information but they do say that citrus fruit should be kept in the fridge. I’d just like, however, to show you this maverick orange!
Is this the world’s oldest living orange?
A few years ago, doing the final tidy up of my late father in law’s flat, in the corner of the pantry I found this orange. The flat had been empty for a year and all that time this orange had been sad and lonely in the cupboard. No wonder he looked a bit rough. … but when cut in half he was sweet and juicy! So much for best before labelling.
Creative Ways to Use Up Leftovers
So please don’t throw food away unless it has passed its sell by date or is unquestionably spoiled. If you do have something that needs using up may I suggest my book, Creative Ways to Use Up Leftovers which has ideas for about 450 leftover foods.
Suzy Bowler
Having been a somewhat itinerant chef for over 30 years I was amazed, on my return to the UK, at the blatant food waste that now seems to be rife in the country; amazed and irritated. So much so that I decided to start a blog about spontaneous cooking from leftovers to show people that there are great alternatives to throwing food away.
