Information About Food Expiration & Sell-By Dates

By Keren Kipfer


Often when we purchase food products or beverages we don't look at the expiration dates printed on the packaging. On the other hand, some people are careful not to purchase products where the date is soon to expire. But what do these dates actually mean and are these foods still safe to eat and use? There are important reasons why these details are included on packaging, but they don't always mean that your food is automatically bad. Read on and learn a little bit about these dates.

Wise consumers need to consider looking into expiration dates for items including food, drinks and even medicines. But if you are about to throw away items which have dates that have already passed, give this serious thought: some expirations dates are notices that the food quality might begin to change after the date and the food is simply "best by" a certain date. Still, in some cases the date printed there is actually its true expiration. There should be no room for carelessness when it comes to expiration dates for products like baby foods and baby formulas. These dates are set by the government and you truly need to throw away expired baby foods after the date has passed.

Perishable products like milk, beef and other meat products, poultry as well as seafood have what is known as a sell-by dates. The stores must sell these perishables by this date, but they are generally still perfectly able to sit in your fridge for a couple of days and still be used. You can even freeze meats that are a day or two passed the sell-by dates. If everything looks and tastes fresh, the food is probably still ok to consume.

As for shelf-stable items like canned foods, boxed food products like macaroni and cheese, mayonnaise and many more similar items, "best if used by" or "use by" dates are being used. Manufacturers of such products use such detail in order to convey to consumers that in fact their product will have its best taste before the date stated but is nearly always edible and safe passed this date. If in case you are a bit in doubt about whether or not to consume a product, the best tool for you to use is still your sense of smell and taste.

There are special machines that print these expiration and sell-by dates onto package. These id coders, as they are known, also responsible for printing serial numbers and batch numbers onto a variety of materials including glass jars, aluminum cans, foil bags, cardboard and more. These coders work very quickly and the ink used in an id coder dries quickly as well. There are quite a few brands of coders, including Altima coders, Imaje coders, Willett coders, Domino coders and others.

Most companies that use such machines often need replacement inks and make-up for these id coders. Buying directly from your coder manufacturer is quite expensive, and you can save money by purchasing from a special product id company with generic versions of these inks. In finding them you will be able to get high quality yet budget-friendly generic versions of VideoJet ink, Imaje ink, Domino ink and more.




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