JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Are you among the 80% of people who throw out food before they should because of confusion about so-called expiration dates?
“Use-by,” “sell-by,” “best-by,” “expiration dates” -- they can make it difficult to determine when you need to eat what in your refrigerator.
And no two items are the same.
Different manufacturers use different time frames, depending on when they think their product will be best.
The only true expiration date is the one listed on baby formula.
Most often the dates you see printed on products are “best-by” dates.
“The thing that people don’t often understand is that, you know, besides not really being regulated, as far as dates go, like industry wide, most of the dates are actually just referring to quality,” said Jon Vredenburg, a registered dietitian and manager of UF Health Employee Wellness. “So no, nothing bad is going to happen to someone if they eat a food that’s a little bit past the sell by date, or the use by day.”
That even goes for the date on your milk -- and your eggs.
And you’ve probably seen different ways online to test whether milk and eggs are still good.
One trick is dropping your eggs in water. If it floats, it’s considered “bad.”
But Vredenburg says taste and smell really tell you everything you need to know.
“Nothing beats the sniff test. I know a lot of people will say, ‘Well, what else could I do?’ But that’s pretty much it,” Vredenburg said. “I mean, we’ve evolved to use our nose and our mouth to get us by a lot of food challenges. So I’d still trust that more than anything.”
Foods to pay attention to
Milk can typically last four to seven days after the date listed on the side.
For eggs, you can even go three to five weeks past the date.
And if it’s canned or processed, Vredenburg said you really don’t need to worry about its date.
“They’re pretty much going to last indefinitely. They’re not going to hurt you if you were to eat them past the day,” Vredenburg said. “The food quality may not be at its peak, you know, might taste a little off, but it’s not going to hurt you.”
He said the food you REALLY need to watch is meat -- specifically anything that is from the butcher or deli.
“Those are the types of foods that can start to garner bacteria where it could make you a little ill,” Vredenburg said. “But, again, you’ll know as soon as you open it from the smell that it’s actually turned.”
The USDA recommends you only keep fresh chicken in the fridge for one to two days. When it comes to fresh beef or pork, the guidelines are three to five days.
Location, location, location
No matter what the date says, how you store your food could cut its time short.
Vredenburg said the goal is to keep cold food cold as long as possible.
“The two things that are the enemy for food is going to be air and temperature. So exposure to the air, exposure to a warm temperature, that’s going to really hasten the spoil,” Vredenburg said. “How it was handled, how often it’s left out at room temperature. Because like especially something like shredded cheese, if you had taco night and you had the shredded cheese out for a couple of hours and put it back in the fridge and had it out again, the next couple of nights and those types of things kind of decrease the lifespan, if you will, of some of those foods.”
He recommends keeping more sensitive items that need cool, consistent temperatures -- like milk and eggs -- toward the back of your fridge, not in the door.
Keeping it in the door exposes it to warm air, which will speed up the growth of bacteria.
The temperature of your fridge also plays a factor.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommends your fridge be below 40 degrees. Above that, bacteria can quickly multiply.
But experts say the best range is actually between 35 and 38 degrees.
It’s not uncommon for refrigerators to be a few degrees off the temperature you set, especially with how often it is opened so dropping the temperature a bit helps prevent spoiling.
You really don’t want to get below 32 degrees though because that’s when your food starts to freeze.