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PA Wire/Press Association Images

Do best before dates actually matter?

No. They do not. Use by dates? They’re REALLY important.

SOME PEOPLE ARE religious about the dates on their food, not daring to take a bite of food from one second into the day of expiration.

Others play fast and loose, using the dates as a mere suggestion.

But, who’s right? Do the dates actually matter?

Dr Wayne Anderson is the director of food science and standards with the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI).

He says that there are two dates you need to pay attention to.

“This question really depends on what you look at. There are two dates used – the use by date and the best before date.

The use by date is sacrosanct.

“The industry sets them using tests and trials and predictive algorithms. You might get away with it once, but it will eventually catch up with.

“If a product can become unsafe by a certain date, you put a use-by date on it.”

On the flip-side, best before dates simply mark where a product will start to deteriorate in quality, but not safety.

For example, if there’s a multi-bag of Tayto in your kitchen press right now that’s been out of date a month, you can eat them and only suffer from shame after you polish off five bags in an hour.

Take that risk with chicken that’s out  of date by a couple of days, and you could end up very sick indeed.

However, throw those crisps out and you’re also wrong, says Dr Anderson.

“Strict adherence to best before dates is unnecessarily increasing food waste.”

He adds that consumers become confused by sell by and consume by dates, which are ostensibly there to help the logistics of the shop.

You’ve got sell-by and other dates and they confuse the whole landscape. Those things have muddied the dates.

“Best before dates are not safety issues, so they’re a little arbitrary. On dry foods, they can be two or three years down the road. A canned product from the 40s could be fine now.”

Largely, the industry is responsible for ensuring that it is up to standard, but the FSAI will get involved if a retailer is reported to be selling food beyond its use by date.

Read: Someone just made a jam-filled sausage a reality

Read: All of these restaurants were ordered to close last month – was your favourite one of them?

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38 Comments
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    Mute trigger
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    Jun 14th 2015, 5:13 PM

    The amount of food wasted due to mis understanding best before is shameful.

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    Mute DAVID CAMPBELL
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    Aug 11th 2015, 8:58 AM

    I agree

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    Mute William Byrne
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    Jun 14th 2015, 6:18 PM

    local shop selling 24 cans of bulmers for €20 because out if date by a month – two trays in and no complaints so far

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    Mute Tap Solny
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    Jun 14th 2015, 6:31 PM

    Kittensoft Toilet Tissue White 4 Pack €2.99 – Tesco.

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    Mute Ciaran De Bhal
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    Jun 14th 2015, 7:18 PM

    Ballygowan. 800 years in the making. Drink by 13th September. Ironic really.

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    Mute Trevor Weafer
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    Jun 14th 2015, 11:06 PM

    Haha yep always wondered about that.

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    Mute Derry Seery
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    Jun 15th 2015, 1:47 AM

    Think that has to do with the plastic deteriorating!

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    Mute Gerard
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    Jun 15th 2015, 3:28 AM

    It’s because of what might happen to the water: either through microbes in it (no drink will ever be 100% free of them) or chemical reactions of minerals dissolve in it. Not sure which, but you’ll know if you’ve ever left a closed bottle out in the sun for a few months. You can smell that something in it has changed.

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    Mute Joseph Siddall
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    Jun 15th 2015, 1:39 PM

    Derry, no, not the deterioration of the plastic…that takes years. Potential bacterial infection of the product.

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    Mute UM
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    Jun 14th 2015, 5:24 PM

    Smell it and taste it. You’ll know pretty quickly if something is off. Best before dates are only guidelines

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    Mute Paul Roche
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    Jun 14th 2015, 5:48 PM

    Showering and brushing your teeth is usually best before a date…

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    Mute Thomas Maher
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    Jun 14th 2015, 5:15 PM

    Ignore best before dates, just use your judgment. Pay attention to use by dates.

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    Mute Gerard
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    Jun 15th 2015, 3:31 AM

    Ignoring them altogether seems a bit much. Reading them doesn’t mean you have to take any particular course of action. Like saying “Sometimes/often the weather forecast is wrong. Ignore it completely”.

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    Mute John Pepper
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    Jun 14th 2015, 5:26 PM

    If it smells ok it’s grand.

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    Mute Paul Wallace
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    Jun 14th 2015, 5:32 PM

    And if there is any “green bits” just cut them off with a knife.

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    Mute John Pepper
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    Jun 14th 2015, 5:43 PM

    Don’t if I could go that far to be honest.

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    Mute Sara McSweeney
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    Jun 14th 2015, 9:25 PM

    @ John that’s only relevant if you are talking about food quality, not food safety. Food can be contaminated by food poisoning micro-organisms and smell fine. Drinking sour milk might make you vomit but it won’t poison you

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    Mute John Pepper
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    Jun 14th 2015, 9:41 PM

    I’d never drink sour milk. Yeah I’m sure if I’m handling raw chicken or leaving it out in the heat then go touching all my other food then I’m asking for trouble. But if it’s kept properly and if it smells ok it’s grand. Haven’t poisoned myself yet

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    Mute Rashers Tierney
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    Jun 14th 2015, 5:49 PM

    No. Noses, however, are useful tools.

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    Mute Tap Solny
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    Jun 14th 2015, 6:11 PM

    Not recommended for digging your garden or hammering nails though.

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    Mute Tap Solny
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    Jun 14th 2015, 5:13 PM

    You will never find a best before date on honey.

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    Mute Thomas Maher
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    Jun 14th 2015, 5:17 PM

    Honey found in ancient Egyptians tombs was still edible

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    Mute Kevin Higgins
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    Jun 14th 2015, 5:19 PM

    You will on the plastic container ones as the plastic has its own expiry date

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    Mute Tap Solny
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    Jun 14th 2015, 6:09 PM

    Honey never goes off. The plastic container will indeed go off before the honey, therefore I would advise eating the plastic container first.

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    Mute stephen
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    Jun 14th 2015, 6:12 PM

    castles that where under siege back in the day used to put whole pigs in barrels of honey

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    Mute Paul McCabe
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    Jun 14th 2015, 5:14 PM

    My rule is no more than 7 days past….take out food no more than 48 hours.

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    Mute Mark Gerard Lochlain
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    Jun 14th 2015, 6:30 PM

    Some things just don’t go off so why date them!!!

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    Mute Tap Solny
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    Jun 14th 2015, 6:54 PM

    Sometime marriage makes you wish that your date had gone off all those years ago.

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    Mute Glenard
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    Jun 14th 2015, 5:14 PM

    Not eating food that has passed it’s best before or use by date has worked for me so far so I think I will just stick to that.

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    Mute Kevin Higgins
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    Jun 14th 2015, 10:39 PM

    Go look up the word “distinction”. its what you’ve just failed to make

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    Mute John Ward
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    Jun 15th 2015, 3:44 AM

    Enda Kenny – use by 1st January 2010

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    Mute Gerard
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    Jun 15th 2015, 3:22 AM

    It might help if the were more verbose in their descriptions. Best before and Use by are too succinct for lots of people to truely understand the difference (including me until about two years ago). Printing is sufficiently advanced that they could easily squeeze in an explanation on most products of what the date limit actually means (deadline/guideline)

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    Mute Owen McThaidhg
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    Jun 15th 2015, 6:37 AM

    This was covered on the consumer show about a month and a half ago…

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    Mute Ían
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    Jun 15th 2015, 9:13 AM

    And in food science reports years ago… Your point?

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    Mute Enjoy The Sun 2015
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    Jun 15th 2015, 10:23 AM

    I bought peaches yesterday in Tesco because they were 90Cent instead of 3E, the use by date was yesterday and they still weren’t ripe enough, however over ripe fruit won’t make you sick, but I have seen really badly discolored meat that was in date by 3 days and if you had bought and eaten it then at full price you would die, the turkey meat was so grey and also the cow meat was grey too, it looked disgusting.

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    Mute Eugene Walsh
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    Jun 14th 2015, 5:08 PM

    for sure , go by use by . I’m opened chicken fillets last wk 1 day after use by with the best of intentions of eating them but the smell released on opening said otherwise. Ra Ra rank !

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