Don’t waste good food! Understand Best Before vs. Food Safety.

It seems your groceries’ best-before labels might not be the final judge of freshness. Insights from Too Good to Go, famous for their discounted “magic bags” of foods, suggest that blindly following best-before dates could unnecessarily dent your wallet—potentially up to £300 a year. They propose a more discerning approach, highlighting that if your food looks, smells, and tastes good, it’s likely safe to eat, even past the best-before date.

• Milk: 

• Traditional use-by labels on milk cartons are being replaced by best-before dates, a move seen in stores like Morrisons. 
• With approximately 490 million pints of milk discarded annually, making use of milk past its best-before date can save considerable money. 

• Bread: 

• Refrigerating bread lets you use it up to two weeks past the best-before date. Even slightly hardened bread is a great option for toasting, extending its usefulness.

• Eggs: 

• Eggs can last up to three weeks longer if kept refrigerated after the best-before date. The water test is a simple way to check if they’re still good. 

• Hard Cheese: 

• Hard cheeses like cheddar can be safely eaten after the best-before date, as long as you remove any surface mold.

• Yogurt: 

• Yogurt’s acidity lets you eat it several weeks after the best-before date while remaining safe from harmful bacteria.

• Canned Food: 

• Due to the high-temperature canning process, canned foods stay safe to eat years after the best-before date.

• Frozen Food: 

• While quality might decline over time, frozen food is generally safe to use beyond the best-before date.

• Dried Pasta: 

• Stored in an airtight container, dried pasta can maintain its quality for up to three years after the best-before date.

• White Rice: 

• White rice, stored properly, can last for years in an airtight container, although watch out for rice weevils.

• Biscuits: 

• Unopened biscuits have a long shelf life, staying edible for weeks or even up to six months after the best-before date.

• Honey: 

• Honey, even when crystallized, lasts a long time and can be revived by placing the jar in boiling water.

• Soy Sauce: 

• Thanks to its high salt content acting as a preservative, sealed soy sauce lasts for years past the best-before date.

• Vinegar: 

• Functioning as a preservative itself, vinegar remains suitable for consumption well beyond its best before date. 

• Sugar: 

• Stored in an airtight container, sugar maintains its quality indefinitely. 

• Bicarbonate of Soda: 

• Bicarbonate of soda stays safe for use years after the best-before date, though its raising power might decrease.

Understanding best-before dates helps reduce foods waste and emerges as a practical strategy for saving money, especially during the current cost-of-living challenges. Jamie Crummie, the co-founder of Too Good to Go, emphasizes the double advantage of lessening environmental impact while also managing personal expenses. Essentially, reassessing how you interpret best-before dates can be a simple yet impactful step towards a more sustainable and economical lifestyle.