Budget Helper - Save money by knowing the difference between ‘use-by’ and ‘best-before’ dates
Do you know the difference between ‘use-by’ and ‘best-before’ dates? You can save money and reduce food waste by knowing what these terms actually mean.
In Australia, ’use-by’ dates indicate food safety, meaning the product shouldn't be consumed or sold after that date. On the other hand, ‘best-before’ dates relate to quality, and food is still safe to eat but may have lost some quality after that date.
So perishable foods like meat, milk and other dairy products, and some frozen products, will have a ‘use-by’ date after which they will become unsafe to eat, should not be consumed and can't legally be sold. ‘Use-by’ dates should be strictly observed.
‘Best-before’ applies to many more goods and indicates a date up to which the product will be at its best. If consumed after that date, it will not harm you but might be of reduced quality, such as a biscuit that’s no longer crisp or a soft drink which might have lost some fizz. While it’s still legal to sell these goods after their ‘best-before’ date, some retailers mark down or donate them to charities, like Hill Street does with Loaves and Fishes.
In the product is in your own pantry, you can use your own judgement and decide if it’s good enough to eat after its ‘best-before’ date. For example, throwing out a packet of pasta would be a terrible waste if it was only a few weeks past its ‘best before’ date – the pasta would very likely be fine in terms of quality. A potato chip, on the other hand, might taste a little stale.
So our advice is, don’t slavishly follow ‘best-before’ dates – use some commonsense and you might save yourself some money and reduce your household’s waste.
