USE BY
A safety line
Found on foods that go off quickly, such as meat products and ready-to-eat salads. GOV.UK says eating food after the use-by date could make you ill.
Check a food
WHAT THE LABEL MEANS
Best before is
not the bin date.
Two little dates do two very different jobs.
UK guidance is clear: a use by date is about safety, a best before date is about quality. Knowing which one you are looking at saves good food without taking chances with the risky kind.
READ THE WORDS not just the date
Check a food- Use by means safety
- Best before means quality
- Display until is for the shop
- Know the label, waste less
THE SHORT ANSWER
Safety date or
quality date?
Most prepacked foods carry one or the other.
The manufacturer decides which one fits the food.
BEST BEFORE
A quality guide
Found on frozen, dried and tinned foods and cheese. After the date the food is usually safe to eat but may not be at its best.
Use your senses
DISPLAY UNTIL
One for the shop
Display until and sell by dates are for retailers, not shoppers, says Love Food Hate Waste. Look for the use by or best before instead.
See the numbersGeneral information only, not medical advice. For advice about your own health, speak to a doctor, pharmacist or other qualified health professional.
FOUR HABITS TO TRY
Read the label,
then trust the right thing.
None of these needs anything new. They are about reading the words next to the date and acting on the right one.
Sort by the words, not the number
Use by foods go to the front of the fridge and get eaten or frozen first. Best before foods can wait.
Freeze before the use-by date
GOV.UK says frozen food does not deteriorate as bacteria cannot grow. Keep the freezer at -18°C and label what you froze and when.
Keep the fridge at 5°C or below
Food that is not stored as the label says can become unsafe before its use-by date or lose quality before its best before.
Use your senses on best before
Look for mould on bread, taste biscuits or crisps for staleness and smell dairy for souring, as GOV.UK suggests.
TWO NUMBERS WORTH KNOWING
Confusion costs
good food.
One figure on how many people mix the dates up,
one on what dropping dates from fresh produce could save.
21%
Thought best before showed if food was safe
In the Food Standards Scotland consumer tracker of December 2021, 21% of consumers incorrectly said the best before date was the best indicator of whether food is safe to eat, and 39% were concerned about understanding the difference.
CONFUSION · FOOD STANDARDS SCOTLAND
≈ 100,000 tonnes
Household food waste that could be saved
WRAP found that selling apples, bananas, broccoli, cucumber and potatoes loose and removing best before dates could save around 100,000 tonnes of household food waste.
FRESH PRODUCE · WRAP
In WRAP's tests, apples stored at 4°C showed no signs of deterioration until two and a half months after their best before date, and broccoli until more than two weeks after it.
A QUICK LABEL CHECK
How much does
the date matter?
Pick a food to see which kind of date it usually carries and how firmly to stick to it. The bar shows how strict the date is. Always go by what your own pack says.
Based on GOV.UK food labelling guidance, Food Standards Scotland and Love Food Hate Waste. General information, not personal food safety advice.
COOKING AND FREEZING
The use-by date
can be stretched once.
GOV.UK says you can eat food after its use-by date if it was cooked or frozen on or before that date. Cooked food should be cooled, kept in the fridge and eaten within 48 hours, or frozen.
Once frozen food has been defrosted, the guidance says to use it within 24 hours. Follow the freezing and defrosting instructions on the label.
Questions
Questions people ask
What is the difference between use by and best before?
GOV.UK says use-by dates relate to the safety of food, while best before dates relate to quality. Eating food after its use-by date could make you ill; after a best before date it is usually safe but may not be at its best.
Can I eat food after the use-by date if it smells fine?
No. Love Food Hate Waste says you cannot always smell the bacteria that cause food poisoning. The exception in GOV.UK guidance is food that was cooked or frozen on or before its use-by date.
What does display until mean?
Display until and sell by dates are for retailers' stock control, not for shoppers. Food Standards Scotland notes a general move to phase them out to avoid confusion.
Why do some fruit and vegetables have no date?
Fresh uncut fruit and vegetables, including potatoes, are exempt from date marking. WRAP has called for best before dates to be removed from them unless a date is shown to reduce food waste.
Why has my milk switched to a best before date?
Food Standards Scotland says some dairy businesses have moved from use by to best before where their safety controls show it is safe to do so. Love Food Hate Waste advises using your senses, as milk will not last as long past the date as other foods.
Sources
- GOV.UK: Understanding food labelling, best before and use-by dates
- Food Standards Scotland: Board paper FSS 221204, public position on use by and best before dates (December 2022)
- WRAP: No plastic packaging, sell fresh uncut produce loose (February 2022)
- Love Food Hate Waste: How do I make sense of food date labels?
Updated