The date on milk is a sell-by date, not a use-by date (on all the milk I've ever bought, anyway), and is good for some time after that date. How long depends on the fat content of the milk (which is what spoils) -- skim milk will keep the longest, whole milk the shortest.

I have milk in my refrigerator right now that has a 1/5 date stamp on it. Just had a bowl of cereal and tea for breakfast this morning, and it all tasted fine.

You can trust me on this one -- I am an uber-paranoid freak about expiration dates!! :)

I have always checked dairy and meat expration dates but never really paid attention to canned food dates, although I have been pretty regular about cleaning out the pantry once a year and passing the food onto a food bank.

Here's what I go by based on personal preference and articles I've read or watched on TV news programs in the past. I'm too lazy right now to verify the information so obviously don't take it as gospel. And I'm guessing different products and places have their own quirks.

To the original question, no, I don't "ignore" the expiry dates but will use it for guidance.

Best before dates usually don't necessarily mean something is not safe to eat but describes when the quality of a product will have degraded past a specific point. I watched a news segment where people were complaining they bought meat (beef?) on sale from a grocery store that was beyond the best before date. The reporter, during his investigation, ascertained that the meat was still safe to eat but the publicity caused the grocery store to refund people's money.

I've also read or heard somewhere that all food products have to have an expiry date even if they will stay safe to eat a long time. But I've found some products that I couldn't find an expiry date so I'm not sure if this is a fact or not.

If you think about it, whether or not something is safe to eat is probably based on the amount of bacteria that's been able to grow on/in the food. (How cold do you keep your fridge?) So, depending on the food product, I'll may throw the product out when it reaches its best before date or keep it. I'll usually throw out dairy products like milk, mayonnaise, egg based products, etc. Meats are iffy. I'll usually keep dry goods like powdered mashed potatoes (great to thicken cream soups), pastas, etc. In the end, if I'm unsure, it'll go in the trash because I'd rather toss a $1 item of food than risk sitting on the potty all night.

As for drugs, I watched a 20/20 segment which said that the best before dates on the packages were based on the package not being opened and once opened, the drug may actually lose its effectiveness earlier than the date on the label. Another point I remember from the segment was that although it wouldn't necessarily be unsafe to consume the drug itself, if you are depending on a drug to keep you healthy/alive and the drug has expired and lost most of it's effectiveness, that in itself is "unsafe".
I've sent a note to my wife's pharmacist friend to get a "professional" answer.

Personally, I'll use Excedrin, Tylenol, etc past their dates but prescription drugs usually go in the trash.

I always check the dates on dairy products. Often there are multiple shipments of milk or yoghurt in the case and I try to choose a carton from the freshest batch.

I definitely check the dates on packaged meat. I once got sick from a package of ground beef marked "Manager's Special", i.e. being sold *on* its sell-by date.

Spices lose flavor pretty quickly. I usually buy them at an Indian grocer because they have more turnover (and lower prices) but it's definitely time for a purge.

I check the dates on things like chips, because they will begin to taste stale/rancid as the sell-by date approaches.

Canned goods? Nah. Though I do end up giving older stuff to an annual food drive so stuff doesn't linger that long.

If it says "Best by xx/xx/xxxx" then I might try it, simply because I'm curious as to whether or not I can taste the difference in quality after their so-called "best by date". But if it says something along the lines of "Discard after xx/xx/xxxx", then I'm not as likely to try it.

I don't even look at the date on milk. Unfortunately, it will usually take a spoonful of sour cereal/milk to let me know if the milk has gone bad.

I always took the dates on drugs like this as a potency issue more than a safety issue. After the date it won't hurt you, but it may not be effective. (Not sure if your friend would confirm that or not, just what I had generally assumed.)

As far as food, I do look at dates. We don't have overstock of much, so this isn't a problem. We do have some canned things around for a while, but cans are usually good at least for a few years and sometimes aren't date marked at all.

If it's something unopened and close to the date, I'd probably use it, at least the once, and all of it if it will be used up quickly. Months out I probably wouldn't touch it. I can't imagine having things years out of date, although I do have some few-years-old spices around, yeah, as seems pretty typical. ;) (Again, mainly the issue is they aren't effective, not that they'll hurt you.) They really ought to put "best if used by" dates on spices, something about a year or two out. (Maybe some do, I dunno, but I haven't noticed.) To a degree it's a guide, but one I generally adhere to. Stuff like meat/dairy/bakery has unusual dating as "sell by", which doesn't help much. Meat is always use or freeze within a couple days of purchase. Dairy would be using within a week or so of opening, which is sometimes earlier than the sell by date. And so on.

Good question. I just sent him an email to clarify.

I think it's a matter of personal taste. I find milk to be repulsive by the time it reaches the "sell by" date.

I freeze my meat so no worries on that, and just about everything else I ignore the exp date on. If it still tastes fine and doesn't have mold I'll eat it!

Here's part of the response my pharmacy executive friend sent me, last night. Note the article he refers to by Laurie Cohen appears to have originated in the WSJ, circa March 29, 2000. If someone wants the rather large full article you can get it for free by going to this site and put in an email address (any random one is fine, I noted):

www.mercola.com/2000/apr/2/drug_expiration.htm

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Craig,

Heat, age and extreme conditions can affect the medication. Once opened the efficacy does go down and the drug can degrade quicker. Of course the FDA states not to use the drug beyond the expiration date. I would use the drug up to 6 months beyond the expiration date if it has not discolored, has a foul odor or tends to be degrading by getting "powdery". My generic answer when I was behind the counter was...FDA and manufacturer recommends you don't use beyond the expiration date but I usually do unless it has the properties discussed above. I might have said a year but probably said I have used it after a year. Here is an interesting article:

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>


"Do drugs really stop working after the date stamped on the bottle? Fifteen years ago, the U.S. military decided to find out. Sitting on a $1 billion stockpile of drugs and facing the daunting process of destroying and replacing its supply every two to three years, the military began a testing program to see if it could extend the life of its inventory.

The testing, conducted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, ultimately covered more than 100 drugs, prescription and over-the-counter. The results, never before reported, show that about 90% of them were safe and effective far past their original expiration date, at least one for 15 years past it.
In light of these results, a former director of the testing program, Francis Flaherty, says he has concluded that expiration dates put on by manufacturers typically have no bearing on whether a drug is usable for longer. Mr. Flaherty notes that a drug maker is required to prove only that a drug is still good on whatever expiration date the company chooses to set. The expiration date doesn't mean, or even suggest, that the drug will stop being effective after that, nor that it will become harmful.

<snip>

Now that the FDA has found that many drugs are still good long after they have supposedly expired, why doesn't it advocate later expiration dates for consumer drugs? One reason is that the consumer market lacks the military's logistical reasons to keep drugs around longer.

Frank Holcombe, associate director of the FDA's office of generic drugs, says that in many cases a manufacturer could extend expiration periods again and again, but to support those extensions, it would have to keep doing stability studies, and keep more in storage than it would like.

Mr. Davis adds: "It's not the job of the FDA to be concerned about a consumer's economic interest." It would be up to Congress to impose changes, he says. As things stand now, expiration dates get a lot of emphasis. For instance, there is a campaign, co-sponsored by some drug retailers, that urges people to discard pills when they reach the date on the label.

And that date often is even earlier than the one the maker set. That's because when pharmacists dispense a drug in any container other than what it came to them in, they routinely cut the expiration date to just one year after dispensing. Some states even require pharmacists to do this.

<snip>

Consider aspirin. Bayer AG puts two-year or three-year dates on aspirin and says that it should be discarded after that. Chris Allen, a vice president at the Bayer unit that makes aspirin, says the dating is "pretty conservative"; when Bayer has tested four-year-old aspirin, it remained 100% effective, he says."

Thanks for that Craig, very interesting. Sounds like instead it's a combination of extremely conservative CYA and "We hope you'll just throw it out and buy some more." ;)

I'm usually very careful about buying the freshest stuff, but then will use it long past the date.

1. Fluid milk--I can just get through a gallon of skim by 5 days past the sell-by date. About 1 gallon in 10 I have to throw some away (usually b/c of travel or something)...my normal b'fast is cereal/milk
1a Eggs--I'll buy the freshest and then use them up for months (literally) past the date.
2. Cheese--I'll keep it unopened way past (6 months for cheese, in actuality) but watch it carefully after opening
3. Soda pop--I frequently see expired diet soda. After a disgusting experience at a mini-mart, I'm very careful especially with specialty flavors. Not good especially for diet to sit around in hot/outdoor conditions
4. Preserved meat/bacon--usually I'm fine with a month after the sell-by date as long as unopened and vacuum is left good (I did just yesterday toss an unopened lb of bacon with a June expiration date)

Farmer Jack (A&P) in our area has a "bounty" if you see expired stuff on the shelf and is very rigorous in the deli/fresh area. That said, they do slip from time to time and are less good with dry groceries at the urban stores than in the suburbs :(

Best situation I ever saw was an international market in St. Louis (Global Foods on Kirkwood Road in Kirkwood...BTW if in the neighborhood it is a wonderful place to visit). It's in about a 20,000 s.f. old A&P that is truly immaculate. Absolutely no "international market" odor, extremely clean and tidy (almost clinical) and literally every ethnicity known to mankind has food there. For the European (generally) products which are labeled with dates and move slowly, they are scrupulous about reducing prices to get them out of the store (interesting it seems to be generated by their POS system)

Mrs BamaVol was telling me she read a story in the paper sometime last year warning about expired (cake/bread/dessert) mixes. She couldn't remember the details. Any idea what goes wrong with old flour?

My wife's pharmacist friend responded by basically saying drugs are generally just not as effective as the active ingredient breaks down over time but don't really go "bad" as unsafe bad. She also said that the pills will likely last to the expiry date if stored as directed which typically means at room temp, in a dry place, and not in direct sunlight.

It was pancake mix. Here's the full info:

http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/pancake.asp