Here’s Something Past Its Expiration Date: the Expiration Date Itself

livemint.com:

climate change. Ah, but these food-safety regulations keep us safe, you might say. Yet in almost all cases, there is no regulation and the dates do nothing to keep us safe.

Contrary to a common perception, “those dates are not about safety, that’s not why they’re there, that’s not what they’re doing" says Martin Wiedmann, a professor of food safety and food science at Cornell University. “For many foods, we could completely do away with it." Although we call them expiration dates, most don’t actually claim anything is expiring or unsafe. Instead, the labels say “fresh until," “display until," “best when used by," “better if used by," “sell by," “best by," “enjoy by," “best before" or—perhaps worst—provide a date with no explanation at all.

The dates originated as a coded system for manufacturers to communicate to retailers when to rotate stock. Consumers clamored for information on the freshness of food, and in the 1970s and 1980s consumer-facing dates became widespread, though never standardized. Food manufacturers have tried, largely in vain, to explain that these are mostly general indicators of when food is at its peak quality.

Most foods, properly stored, remain edible and safe long after their peak. “It’s intended as a sort of consumer guide to be helpful," said Andrew Harig, vice president at FMI—the Food Industry Association (formerly the Food Marketing Institute), a Washington trade group that represents food retailers and producers. “It’s just that it morphed into less of a guide and more of a rule, and that’s one of the challenges…Food technologists and food-safety people, they absolutely hate these labels." Since 2017, FMI has encouraged members to coalesce around just two labels: “Best if used by," which