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The foods you can safely eat after your date
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It is very important to take into account the difference between the expiration date and the best before date.
Food waste has several “culprits.” Overcooking and ending up throwing away food or poor food preservation can be factors that end up making us waste food. Another reason this can occur is to discard foods that, although we think they are expired, in reality they are not. Here comes into play knowing how to read food labels correctly, and learn when a food is quickly perishable, or can be consumed for a longer time. To do this, the key lies in the difference between “expiration date” and “best before date”.
Distinguishing between these two indicators is essential to avoid food waste. «Very perishable foods carry expiration date and this tells us about the safety of food: from that date on it is not safe to consume and could cause us a foodborne disease “, explains Beatriz Robles, food technologist, dietician-nutritionist and author of Eat safe, eating everything (Planet). So if we talk about the best before date, says Helena Calvo, responsible for awareness campaigns on food waste in Too Good To Go, that this is the one that indicates the moment until which the food has the expected quality and from that date some of its nutritional qualities or changes in its aroma, texture or flavor may be altered. “It can still be consumed without any risk, as long as the storage instructions have been followed,” he says. Beatriz Robles adds an exception, eggs, because she explains that although they have a preferred consumption date, they should not be consumed after that date.
Although this difference seems very obvious, many times we do not look well at the labeling, and we discard foods that we can eat without problems. «It is calculated that around 40% of consumers are not clear about the difference between the two dates, according to a study by the OCU “, indicates Helena Calvo.
Best before date
If we talk about how long after we can eat certain foods, once their preferred consumption date has passed, this margin varies depending on how we talk about one food and another. Above all, Robles remembers that if we are talking about an expiration date, even if the product has an apparently good condition, we should not consume it, because may contain risk pathogens. If we return to foods for preferential consumption, Helena Calvo refers to the recommendations of the Catalan Agency for Food Safety:
– Sliced bread can be consumed approximately up to 15 days after exceeding its best before date.
– Juices, cereals or sauces up to three months later.
– Coffee, legumes, flour, pasta, rice and many preserves that also have a best before date would be suitable up to a year later.
«In these cases, to know if we can consume them or not, what we have to apply is the sense logicThat is, if it looks good, smells good and when we taste it it tastes good, we can consume it », adds the professional.
How long does a frozen product hold?
One option to extend the shelf life of food is freezing. This, says Beatriz Robles, “stops the growth of microorganisms, so the food will not have safety problems even if we have it in the freezer for several months.” Even so, he warns that its quality may deteriorate, because in freezing there are still some reactions that deteriorate it, such as rancidity of fats. Leave a list with the recommended consumption times if we have frozen it:
– Fatty meat (except poultry): four months.
– Lean meat (except poultry): 12 months.
– Raw poultry: from six to nine months.
– Raw white fish: six months.
– Raw blue fish: three months.
«Before storing it in the freezer it is highly recommended note the freezing date In order to know how long the frozen product has been, and to be able to consume it within the deadlines; once defrosted it must be taken within 24 hours “, adds the expert from Too Good To Go.
What about the drinks?
Finally, both professionals talk about how long some drinks can be consumed. Helena Calvo indicates that drinks such as milk, fruit juices or vegetable drinks have a preferred consumption date and in these cases they can be consume up to three months later; in the case of bottled water up to a year later. “Here we would also have to apply the logic of our senses: if it looks good, as well as smells and tastes, there is no doubt that we can consume them without any risk,” he says. Beatriz Robles adds that if we talk about unpasteurized beverages, “which we usually see on the refrigerated shelf,” these can have an expiration date. Finally, a detail: alcoholic beverages with a graduation greater than 10º and wines are exempt from showing the date of minimum duration.