Best-Before vs Use-By Dates: What’s Safe to Eat?

We found a jar of peanut butter at the back of our cupboard, 14 months past its best-before date. We smelled it, tasted a spoonful, and finished the jar over the next week. Nothing happened, which is why this article exists: most date labels are softer than they look.

TL;DR — the 30-second version

Best-before = quality. Use-by = safety. Best-before dates on dry goods, cans, and pantry staples are the maker’s guess at when flavor slips — not a spoilage alarm. Use-by dates on fresh meat, fish, and soft dairy are the real deadlines. Store things sensibly and most pantry items are fine months past the stamp.

The short answer

The short answer: best-before is a quality promise, use-by is a safety warning, and sell-by isn’t for you at all — it’s aimed at the store’s shelves. Mix them up and you’ll bin a lot of perfectly good food.

Where the two labels come from

The split became official in the EU under Regulation 1169/2011: a “use by” date is forced only on foods that can actually turn dangerous — raw meat, fish, soft cheeses — and a “best before” date goes on everything else. The US works differently: federal law barely requires date labels. The only federally mandated one is on infant formula, a required “Use By” stamp. Every other phrase — “Best By,” “Sell By,” “Enjoy By” — is voluntary, a quality guess from the maker.

And “sell-by”? That one is for store staff and stock rotation — the USDA says consumers shouldn’t treat it as a date for anything.

The foods that outlive their stamps

These survive past their stamp by weeks to years — we’ve eaten all of them past date:

• Honey. Effectively never spoils. It crystallizes; warm the jar in hot water (not the microwave) and it pours again.
• Rice, pasta, oats, flour. Dry pantry grains keep a year past the date if sealed and dry. Clipping opened bags shut is enough.
• Canned beans, tomatoes, vegetables. An intact, undented, rust-free can is safe for years; the USDA’s line is that low-acid canned food holds quality 2–5 years and undamaged cans stay safe well beyond.
• Hard cheese. Mold on a block of cheddar? Cut an inch (2.5 cm) around it and keep the rest — hard cheese has too little moisture for mold to tunnel deep. Soft cheese goes in the bin.
• Yogurt. Unopened, a week or two past is normal. Stir it; whey on top is fine, not a warning sign.
• Eggs. The water test works: fresh eggs sink and lie flat, old ones stand up or float because the air cell grows. Floaters aren’t instantly bad, but crack them and smell first.

The short list of things we actually throw out

Real food-safety rules are shorter than the marketing around them. Toss when:

• The can bulges, hisses, or leaks — that’s gas from bacteria, no exceptions.
• Mold has grown into soft food: yogurt, jam, soft cheese, cooked leftovers.
• Raw meat or fish is past its use-by date.
• It smells wrong. Your nose is a decent lab — trust it.

That’s the whole list. Everything else is a judgment call we make with eyes and nose first.

The three-second test we use at home

Look, smell, taste. A tiny nibble past its date won’t hurt you — if the smell is off, spit it out; your palate beats any stamp. For real answers we use the USDA’s free FoodKeeper app, which lists fridge and freezer times for specific foods. We trust it more than any label.

Why most “expired” food is fine

The USDA estimates that 30–40 percent of the US food supply never gets eaten, and a good slice of that is label confusion; ReFED, the food-waste research group, puts household waste at a similar scale, mostly because people sort by the stamp instead of the food. The agency’s guidance never wavers: best-before is about quality, not safety. It pegs a typical family of four’s share at about $1,500 a year. Reading labels right is the cheapest diet change we know — it costs nothing.

Evidence table

Quick answers

Q: Can I eat yogurt a week past its best-before date? A: If it’s unopened and smells fine, yes. Stir it first; whey on top is normal, not spoilage.

Q: Do eggs go bad on the printed date? A: Not usually. The date is a quality guess, weeks out. Use the water test and your nose.

Q: Is “sell by” the same as “use by”? A: No. Sell-by is for store staff and stock rotation. Ignore it at home.

Q: Does honey ever go bad? A: Properly sealed, effectively no. It crystallizes with age; warm the jar gently to reliquefy.

Editorial review: EasternReset Team · Evidence-graded per our Editorial Standards.