Best-before vs use-by: what does an expiry date really mean?
A use-by date and a best-before date are not the same thing. Knowing the difference saves kilograms of perfectly good food from the bin every year.
Have you ever stood in front of the fridge, squinting at a date on a package, wondering "is this still okay to eat?" That hesitation is one of the biggest drivers of household food waste. The good news: a little knowledge prevents most of it.
Use-by and best-before are different
Packaged food carries two very different kinds of date:
- Use-by date: A safety date. After it passes, the product should not be eaten. You'll find it on perishable, microbiologically risky items: raw chicken, minced meat, fresh fish, some dairy.
- Best-before date: A quality date, not a safety one. After it passes, the product is usually still safe to eat — it may just lose a bit of freshness, texture or aroma. You'll find it on long-life items: pasta, rice, biscuits, canned goods, spices.
Not knowing this difference is exactly what sends a perfectly good jar of jam or bag of pasta into the bin.
Which product falls into which group?
A rough map:
| Product | Usually | After the date |
|---|---|---|
| Raw meat, chicken, fish | Use-by | Discard |
| Fresh milk, opened yogurt | Near use-by | Check smell/look |
| Eggs | Best-before | Do the float test |
| Canned goods, dry legumes | Best-before | Often still fine |
| Spices, honey, vinegar | Best-before | Last a long time |
The rule: use-by is safety, best-before is quality. Respect use-by; trust your senses on best-before.
Don't forget your senses
A date is a guide, not an absolute verdict. For a best-before item that's passed, look, smell, and if needed taste a tiny amount. Mould, sourness, an off smell or a swollen package means the bin. Otherwise, it's most likely dinner. For a food-by-food breakdown of what's safe after the date, see our is food safe after expiry guide.
How long something lasts also depends on how you store it — the same yogurt keeps longer on an inner shelf than in the door. See our fridge shelf-life chart for the details. And once you've opened a package, the printed date no longer applies: how long opened products last covers that.
freshIt remembers the decision for you
Keeping every product's date in your head is hard. freshIt reads your grocery receipt, assigns each item an estimated expiry date based on its category, and nudges you gently a few days before it spoils. So you never reach the "is this still okay?" moment — because you'll have used it while it was fresh.
The first step to cutting waste is reading dates correctly. The second is never missing them.