expiration dates codes on food guidelines chart

2 This is the date the item was packed and usually the item can last a long time past this date.

Pack date – This date can be found on canned foods, crackers, cookies and spices.

2 They may however lose quality over time. Perishable foods once frozen and kept continuously frozen should be safe to eat indefinitely even past the expiration date. 3 It is therefore advised to properly discard expired or unneeded medication. 2 Items such as prescription and over-the-counter medicines may also be considered risky to consume past their expiration date due to changes in chemical composition and a reduction in potency. Stores will therefore not distribute these items past this date. Items such as infant formula however should NOT be consumed past their expiration date.

Expiration date – Almost nothing has a set expiration date.

Codes, Policies, Ordinances & Resolutions.

You should also follow any directions for use or cooking instructions that the supplier has put on the label. ‘This yoghurt should be kept refrigerated’. If specific storage conditions are required in order for a product to keep until its best-before or use-by date, suppliers must include this information on the label, e.g.

This is because it is difficult to give the consumer an accurate guide as to how long these foods will keep, as they may retain their quality for many years and are likely to be consumed well before they spoil. some canned foods, do not need to be labelled with a best-before date. The only food that can have a different date mark on it is bread, which can be labelled with a baked-on or baked-for date if its shelf life is less than seven days.įoods that have a shelf life of two years or longer, e.g. Foods that have a best-before date can legally be sold after that date provided the food is fit for human consumption. You can still eat foods for a while after the best-before date as they should be safe but they may have lost some quality. Foods should not be eaten after the use-by date and can’t legally be sold after this date because they may pose a health or safety risk. The food supplier is responsible for placing a use-by or best-before date on food.įoods that must be eaten before a certain time for health or safety reasons should be marked with a use-by date. The two types of date marking are use-by dates and best-before dates. Date marks give a guide to how long food can be kept before it begins to deteriorate or may become unsafe to eat.

Expiration dates codes on food guidelines chart