It is sometimes difficult to locate the dates on food products. They never seem to be in the same place, and even when you find them, they can be nearly impossible to read. For something that seems so important, I’ve often wondered why there isn’t a standard location on every product where the date must be clearly and legibly printed. So I decided to do a little research, and come to find out, there’s a good chance you’ve thrown away perfectly good food.
In fact, I have a suspicion that most, if not all, of us have.
Maybe it was a gallon of milk that had reached the date stamped on the jug. Maybe it was a loaf of bread that had been sitting on the counter for a week. Or perhaps it was a can of green beans that had somehow worked its way to the back of the pantry, where it remained forgotten until somebody discovered that its expiration date had passed two years earlier.
Into the garbage it went.
After all, the date had expired.
But what if that date wasn’t really an expiration date?
What if the federal government had never required the manufacturer to put it there in the first place?
And what if that perfectly good can of green beans could have remained edible for years beyond the date printed on its label?
As strange as it sounds, all three possibilities are entirely real.
And the explanation takes us into a surprisingly complicated world of grocery-store marketing, food science, state regulations, consumer psychology, and billions of dollars in wasted food.
The date that wasn’t required
Here’s something most grocery shoppers probably don’t know.
With one major exception, the United States government does not require food manufacturers to place consumer expiration dates on their products.
That exception is infant formula, which must carry a federally regulated use-by date.
For most other foods, those familiar dates are voluntary at the federal level.
That’s right. The date printed on your canned corn, crackers, cereal, or package of hamburger meat generally isn’t a federally established deadline declaring when that food becomes dangerous.
In many cases, it’s simply the manufacturer’s estimate of how long the product will maintain its best quality.
The USDA explains that food dating serves two purposes: helping consumers understand when a product is likely to taste its best and helping stores determine how long to display it for sale.
And that second purpose helps explain how this whole system developed.
It started with grocery stores, not kitchen tables
Long before consumers began studying expiration dates, food manufacturers and grocery stores were already using codes to keep track of their inventory.
Imagine a grocery store receiving 100 cases of canned vegetables.
Some arrived Monday. Others arrived three weeks earlier.
Naturally, the store wanted to sell the older merchandise first.
Manufacturers began using coded markings that could help retailers identify production batches and rotate inventory. These markings also made it easier to trace products when something went wrong.
But the codes weren’t necessarily designed for customers.
Over time, especially during the 1970s, shoppers increasingly wanted to know how fresh their purchases were. Visible calendar dates became more common.
The idea was straightforward: customers would feel more confident buying products when they could see a date.
And manufacturers had another incentive.
Freshness sells.
A customer comparing two packages of the same product might naturally choose the one with the later date, even if both were perfectly good.
Eventually, these dates became so commonplace that Americans began treating them as though they were official government safety deadlines.
They weren’t.
And in most cases, they still aren’t.
The Kentucky green bean mystery
Now imagine something.
You’re shopping in Kentucky and pick up a can of green beans.
The label reads:
BEST IF USED BY: OCTOBER 2027
A few days later, you’re visiting relatives in Tennessee. You stop at a grocery store and pick up another can of green beans, perhaps from a different manufacturer.
That label reads:
BEST IF USED BY: APRIL 2028
Does Tennessee allow green beans to last six months longer than Kentucky?
Of course not.
The difference might have nothing to do with either state.
The cans could have been manufactured at different times, packaged differently, or assigned different quality dates by their manufacturers.
But here’s where things get interesting.
Although federal law generally doesn’t require consumer date labels, more than 20 states have their own dating requirements for certain foods, according to the USDA.
Those rules can involve milk, eggs, or other products, depending on the state.
One state might regulate when a particular product can be sold. Another might require a date to be displayed. Others leave more discretion to the manufacturer.
There is no universal state-by-state system in which Kentucky declares canned green beans good for three years while Tennessee declares them good for five.
For ordinary commercially canned green beans, the more important factors are the processing method, condition of the can, storage temperature, and manufacturer’s quality standards.
In other words, crossing a state line doesn’t change how quickly food spoils.
But state laws can change what dates consumers see and how retailers must handle certain products.
And that’s a distinction worth remembering.
What do the scientists say?
This is where the story becomes particularly useful.
Food scientists and government researchers have spent decades studying how long different foods remain safe and how long they maintain their quality.
And there are established recommendations.
But they aren’t all based on the same thing.
Some recommendations concern the time before flavor, texture, or nutritional quality begins declining.
Others concern the time during which harmful bacteria can multiply enough to create a serious health risk.
Those are two very different clocks.
Consider canned vegetables.
The USDA says properly stored, commercially canned low-acid foods, including green beans, corn, peas, carrots, and canned meats, generally maintain their best quality for two to five years.
High-acid canned foods, such as tomatoes and many canned fruits, generally have a shorter recommended quality period of 12 to 18 months.
Why the difference?
Acid can gradually affect the contents and the lining of a can, contributing to changes in quality.
But here’s the important part: those timeframes are not automatic safety expiration dates.
A commercially canned product that was properly processed, remains sealed, and has been stored under suitable conditions may remain safe beyond its recommended quality period.
That doesn’t mean every old can is safe. A bulging, leaking, badly rusted, or deeply dented can should be discarded, particularly if the damage affects its seams. Never taste questionable canned food to test its safety; botulism toxin cannot reliably be detected by sight, smell, or taste.
So that forgotten can of green beans might not belong in the garbage simply because its printed date has passed.
The date is one piece of information.
The condition and storage history of the food are equally important.
Meat is a different story
If canned vegetables are forgiving, fresh meat is considerably less so.
This is where consumers should pay much closer attention to scientific storage recommendations.
Unlike commercially canned foods, fresh meat can support the growth of dangerous bacteria, particularly when refrigeration temperatures rise.
And here’s something important: food doesn’t have to smell bad to make you sick.
Some dangerous bacteria can be present without producing an obvious odor, discoloration, or slimy texture.
The USDA and FoodSafety.gov recommend the following refrigerator storage periods for common foods, assuming temperatures of 40°F or below.
Raw ground beef: 1–2 days
Raw chicken or turkey: 1–2 days
Raw steaks and pork chops: 3–5 days
Raw roasts: 3–5 days
Bacon: 7 days
Opened deli meat: 3–5 days
Cooked meat leftovers: 3–4 days
Raw shell eggs: 3–5 weeks
These are general home-storage recommendations, not promises that every package will remain safe for exactly that many days. The product’s packaging, handling history, and manufacturer instructions still matter.
Freezing meat while it is fresh can greatly extend its useful life. Food kept continuously frozen at 0°F remains safe indefinitely from a temperature standpoint, although quality gradually declines.
What about milk? Does it really expire at midnight?
Milk might be the best example of how confusing food dates have become.
Imagine a gallon of milk sitting in your refrigerator.
The label says October 12.
It’s now October 14.
Do you pour it down the drain?
Many people do.
But that date doesn’t necessarily mean the milk became unsafe two days earlier.
Milk’s usable life depends on several factors, including pasteurization, packaging, handling, and especially refrigeration temperature.
Milk kept consistently cold may remain usable beyond a printed quality or sell-by date. Milk that has been allowed to warm repeatedly may spoil before the date arrives.
There’s no scientifically defensible rule that every gallon of milk is safe for a fixed number of days after its label date.
And while sour odor, curdling, or unusual texture are reasons to discard milk, the absence of those signs is not an absolute guarantee of safety.
The lesson isn’t to ignore milk dates.
It’s to understand what they mean.
Bread: Is it good until it turns green?
Here’s one that probably sounds familiar in a lot of households.
You pick up a loaf of bread, notice the date passed three days ago, and take a look inside.
No green spots.
No fuzzy patches.
Looks fine.
You make a sandwich.
For ordinary bread that has been stored properly, passing the best-by date doesn’t automatically make it unsafe.
But the appearance of mold changes everything.
And contrary to what some people believe, simply removing the moldy slice doesn’t make the rest of the loaf safe.
The USDA recommends discarding moldy bread and baked goods because they’re porous. Mold can spread beneath the surface before it becomes visible.
So if you spot a green patch on one slice, the safest choice is to throw away the entire affected loaf.
You can reduce waste by freezing bread before it becomes stale or moldy. Take out only the slices you need.
In this case, there’s a difference between bread that’s merely old and bread that’s contaminated.
How much money are we throwing away?
Now we arrive at perhaps the most expensive part of this story.
According to the FDA, confusion over date labels accounts for an estimated 20% of consumer food waste.
Think about that.
One-fifth of the food consumers throw away may be connected to misunderstanding those little dates stamped on packages.
And the USDA estimates that roughly 30% of the U.S. food supply is lost or wasted at the retail and consumer levels.
What could date confusion cost one household?
Estimated avoidable waste each week: $10
Annual cost: $520
Over 10 years: $5,200
Illustrative calculation, not a measured household average.
Just $10 a week in avoidable food waste adds up to $520 a year.
That’s money spent on groceries that never made it onto the dinner table.
And that raises an uncomfortable question.
How much of that waste could be prevented if consumers understood the difference between an expiration date and a quality recommendation?
Four phrases that could save you money
Here’s what the most common food labels generally mean:
Best If Used By: Recommended for best taste and quality
Sell By: Helps retailers manage inventory
Use By: Recommended last date for peak quality; a firm deadline for infant formula
Freeze By: Recommended date to freeze for best quality
None of these phrases should override safe handling instructions, actual spoilage, or evidence of contamination.
The real expiration date may not be printed anywhere
Perhaps the most surprising thing about this entire subject is that food doesn’t operate on a calendar.
A can of green beans doesn’t know whether it’s sitting on a shelf in Kentucky or Tennessee.
A loaf of bread doesn’t know that its best-by date was yesterday.
And a gallon of milk doesn’t suddenly spoil because the clock strikes midnight.
What matters is what happened to the food before it reached your kitchen, how it was processed, how it was stored, and what happens to it afterward.
Some foods, particularly commercially canned vegetables, can maintain their quality for years.
Others, especially fresh meat and poultry, require much more careful handling and shorter storage periods.
And some foods may become dangerous without providing any visible warning.
So the answer isn’t to throw away everything when a date passes.
Nor is it to ignore every date and trust your nose.
The answer is to understand the difference between food quality and food safety.
Because somewhere in America tonight, somebody will open a refrigerator, pick up a perfectly good product, glance at the date, and throw it away.
Not because the food has spoiled.
Not because a scientist determined it became dangerous at midnight.
But because a manufacturer printed a date on the package, and the person holding it assumed that date meant the food had expired.
And that’s a pretty expensive misunderstanding.
Author’s Note
The next time you clean out your pantry, take a closer look at those dates.
You might discover that you’ve been treating recommendations as deadlines.
That doesn’t mean you should take chances with questionable food. Food poisoning is a much bigger problem than wasting a few dollars’ worth of groceries.
But understanding what food labels actually mean could help your family save money without sacrificing safety.
For those wanting to check specific foods, the USDA’s FoodKeeper resource and FoodSafety.gov storage charts offer science-based guidance.
Further reading: USDA Food Product Dating; FDA food waste and safety; Cold Food Storage Chart; FoodKeeper.
A few questions worth asking
Have you ever thrown away unopened food simply because the date had passed?
Do you use milk past its printed date, or does it go straight down the drain?
How about bread? Do you judge it by the date, or by whether it’s started turning green?
And perhaps the biggest question: If most dates aren’t actual expiration deadlines, should manufacturers be required to make that distinction clearer?
Perhaps it’s time we started asking whether our food is actually bad before assuming its time is up.