Who Decides When Your Food Expires: How Do Food Manufacturers Determine the Expiration Date of a Product?

I had a roommate who threw out some homemade sauerkraut after just a week. Why? Because the internet told her it had gone bad. I said, “How could it be bad? It was already bad when I gave it to you.”

Seriously, sauerkraut is just cabbage that’s been slowly rotting (fermenting) in the kitchen for a month. A week in your fridge isn’t going to ruin it. I ate my batch for several months, tasted the same the whole time. No regrets, and no trips to the ER.

These days, people see a date stamped on the packaging, glances at the calendar, and bam! straight into the garbage it goes. Even if it’s the day of the “use by” date.

It drives me nuts. This obsession or blind obedience to expiration labels. “Use by.” “Best if used by.” Most of the time, are rough guidelines, not hard-and-fast rules.

Case in point, the second day after Christmas, my aunt tossed nearly $80 worth of leftovers into the trash.

“I just didn’t want to make anyone sick,” she said to me. “But I also don’t really know what any of those dates mean. I just didn’t want to risk it.”

Multiply that by millions of households and it starts to explain why the U.S. throws away over $160 billion worth of food each year—much of it still perfectly safe to eat. The most overlooked culprit is the tiny, cryptic dates printed on product packaging that masquerade as guidance but are more often guesswork.

Understandably, no one wants to serve spoiled food to their families, or throw food away unnecessarily, but a lot of that food is discarded while still safe to eat.

Contrary to popular belief, expiration dates in America are almost never about expiration. When you see a “best by” date on that box of crackers or jar of peanut butter, it’s not a safety deadline. It’s a quality estimate. It’s akin to saying, “We think this tastes best before this date.” It’s not saying the food self-destructs the next morning.

Expiration Dates are More of Guidelines, Not Guarantees

Granted that this taps into the modern food waste anxiety we all have, it helps to understand that most of these dates are not regulated by federal law. In the U.S., except infant formulas are subjected to specific requirements under safety and nutritional adequacy as nutrient content must remain consistent until the printed date. After that, vitamin degradation may make it unsuitable for babies.

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Everything else is largely up to the manufacturer. That’s why a carton of yogurt might say “best if used by” February 5, but still be perfectly safe—and completely fine in taste and texture—on February 10. Or February 20, depending on how it’s been stored.

Particularly, the phrases you see on packaging—“sell by,” “use by,” and “best before”—are not consistent in their application or meaning. Here’s what they generally mean:

“Sell by”: “Sell by” is even less relevant to consumers. That date is meant for retailers. It tells them when to pull products from the shelf for inventory turnover, not when the product becomes unsafe. Still, people routinely misinterpret these labels as hard stop signs. It doesn’t mean the food is unsafe after that date.

“Best if used by/before”: This refers to quality, not safety. The product might lose flavor, texture, or nutritional value after this point, but it won’t suddenly become dangerous.

“Use by”: This is the closest thing to a safety guideline, but even then, it’s typically set conservatively and still refers to peak quality unless it’s baby formula.

These dates reflect a combination of consumer expectation and manufacturer liability management. In other words, companies don’t want complaints, and they’d rather play it safe by setting shorter windows than risk someone blaming them for a bad batch. There’s no penalty for setting a “use by” date too early, but plenty of risk in going too long.

The Consequences of Confusion

That might sound like a harmless quirk of the food industry, but collectively, this misunderstanding adds up. Food waste isn’t just about money—though the average American family wastes hundreds of dollars a year because of misread labels. According to the USDA, confusion over date labels contributes to a significant portion of the 30–40% of food that goes uneaten in the U.S. annually. That’s not just wasteful—it’s expensive and environmentally costly. Agriculture takes water, energy, and labor. Tossing edible food is essentially throwing all that effort and resources down the drain. Globally, if food waste were a country, it would be the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases behind the U.S. and China.

A study published in Waste Management found that nearly 84% of Americans at least occasionally discard food close to or just past its printed date—even though the food is still safe. That’s how marketing estimates become food waste.

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And then there’s hunger. The USDA reports that over 34 million Americans, including 9 million children live in food-insecure households. Meanwhile, grocery stores, restaurants, and homes routinely toss safe, edible food simply because of misleading date stamps.

Smell, Taste, and Common Sense Still Matter

Here’s where consumer responsibility comes into play. Labels offer rough estimates, but sensory cues are still key here. If a product looks normal, smells fresh, and has been stored correctly, it’s generally still safe—even after the printed date.
There are, of course, exceptions. Meats, seafood, and unpasteurized dairy are more sensitive to time and temperature abuse.

For these, strict refrigeration and timely use are key. But for processed, packaged, or fermented foods, there’s usually more wiggle room than people think.

Proper food handling, from storage temperatures to hygiene practices, is arguably more important than the label. A rotisserie chicken left in a hot car for three hours is dangerous, even if it’s “well within date.” On the flip side, a sealed block of cheddar kept cold for an extra week probably poses little to no risk.

What Does Spoilage Look Like?

Spoilage is typically caused by microbial growth—bacteria, molds, or yeasts—that change the texture, smell, or taste of food. It’s fairly easy to spot in many cases. Mold on bread. A sour smell in milk. Slime on lunch meat. These are signs something’s broken down biologically, and you probably shouldn’t eat it.

But not all dangerous microorganisms announce themselves. Pathogens like Salmonella, E. coli, or Listeria don’t necessarily change how food looks or smells. That’s why handling, storage, and temperature control matter more than package dates. Similarly, perishable ready-to-eat foods like deli meats or soft cheeses that are prone to Listeria should be taken seriously, especially for high-risk groups like the elderly, pregnant women, and immunocompromised individuals. Yet again, this has more to do with the type of food and your handling of it, not just the date alone.

Storage Is Half the Battle

A refrigerator that runs too warm can make safe food go bad faster, regardless of the expiration date. The USDA recommends keeping your fridge at or below 40°F (4°C), and your freezer at 0°F (-18°C). Most home fridges fluctuate, especially if they’re overfilled or old. You can get a cheap fridge thermometer to double-check, small fix, big difference.

Also important: know your food’s storage range. Eggs can last 3–5 weeks past the pack date if properly stored in their original carton. Hard cheeses are less prone to contamination than soft ones, so they tend to be safer longer. Pickled and fermented foods, thanks to acidity and microbial competition, they often last far beyond their labeled dates with proper storage preservation methods.

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Legislative Efforts for Clarity

The Food Date Labeling Act has been introduced multiple times, including in 2016, 2019, and 2023. These bills proposed creating a unified, two-label system: one for quality (“best if used by”) and one for safety (“expires on” or “use by”). As of now, none of these bills have been enacted into law. But the push for standardization continues, supported by groups like the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic. They argue that clear, standardized language could prevent confusion and reduce waste.

Meanwhile, some companies have voluntarily moved toward clearer labeling. For example, Walmart and other major retailers have shifted toward using “best if used by” phrase for quality-based dates, and reserve “use by” only for safety-critical items. It’s a start, but progress is uneven and depends largely on corporate buy-in.

What You Can Actually Do

The more we understand that, the more power we have to reduce waste, save money, and still eat safely. If you’re trying to waste less and still keep your family safe, you don’t need a food science degree to handle this better. Here’s a short list of things that matter more:

Practice FIFO. First In, First Out: use older stuff first.

Don’t rely on the date alone. Use sight and smell, and judgment.

Just because it smells good doesn’t mean it’s safe to eat. You should look out for other things like water separation, if you have a lot of water at the bottom of a once put together dish, there might be microbes breaking down your food which would make it unsafe to eat.