How accurate are sell by dates?!
Answers: Cause how can you tell when something is gonna go bad, and should I stick with the old sniff test?
The "sell by" dates on food are for the use of grocery stores. That is the last date that stores are allowed to sell that particular product. These "out of date" items are pulled from the grocery store shelves and no longer sold to consumers.
This does not mean that the food is no longer good for customer ingestion. It depends on the product, but most canned and frozen products are good for quite some time after the "sell by" date. Milk, as an example, can last a week after that date. It's easy for your nose to decide if is bad.
Be careful with meat though. The meat "sell by" date is determined by the grocery store or butcher shop, not the manufacturer. I have bought it a couple of times BEFORE the "sell by" date and it was bad.
Generally the "sell by" date from the manufacturer is the last date they will insure the quality of the product. It does not mean that the food is not safe to eat.
Depends on what you are talking about. Some foods are good a little past the suggested sell by date/expiration date
Sell by dates and Best before are the biggest con invented. These were introduced to get the Public to buy more of the same because, "it will have gone off".
Bollocks.
how accurate can they be if it says sell by the 28th thats the date sounds pretty accurate to me, after the 28th they are out of date. generally the sell by dates are a little on the conservative side in your favour, supermarkets err on the side of caution so I dont think you have much to worry about
I'd say generally its a guidline but dont muck about with seafood or chicken sell by dates. Not worth the consequenses! lol
It really depends on the type of product and the length of shelf life it has. Things with a long shelf life, like tinned or frozen food will normally be OK for a while after the sell by date.
Fresh foods which have a 'use by' date have much less tolerance. You can get away with a few extra days on items where it's really obvious when it's off - milk and fruit and veg for example.
Things like meat and seafood I would never use beyond the 'use by' date. It isn't always obvious when they start to go off, and will make you ill if they are, so personally I prefer not to take any risks. But if you don't mind getting food poisoning - go for it!