When stores are offering food products that have a marked best before, use by or expiry date it is important that this information is provided and clearly communicated to allow the customer to make an informed decision, it is even more important to understand the difference between these terms to ensure you are not offering an unsafe product for sale.
- Use-by and expiry dates
These are terms required for health and safety reasons where a product shouldn’t be consumed past that date in order to prevent the person from becoming sick. Food that is past it’s use-by date is expired and cannot legally be sold.
- Best before
This is used to provide detail around food quality. Provided it has been stored correctly (as labelled) then it’s safe to consume after the best before date.
Helpful link:
Ministry for Primary Industries - How to read food labels