Expiration Dates 101: Helpful Information About Your Food

By Keren Kipfer


Often when we purchase food products or beverages we don't look at the expiration dates printed on the packaging. On the other hand, some people are careful not to purchase products where the date is soon to expire. But what do these dates actually mean and are these foods still safe to eat and use? There are important reasons why these details are included on packaging, but they don't always mean that your food is automatically bad. Read on and learn a little bit about these dates.

If you want to be a wise consumer you need to be conscious about expiration dates for products like food, beverages and different types of medicine. When you have the itch to throw away stuff with dates that seem to have passed try to consider this first: that in some cases the dates that are printed are not necessarily stating that the item is now unsafe and not edible. For some products though, the expiration date is literal and required by the government and this includes items for infants and toddlers, such as formula and jarred baby food. When the expiration date has passed, these items should be tossed away.

When you refer to sell-by dates, they are basically pertaining to products that are perishable like milk, beef, poultry and seafood or other meat items. Stores sell such products by their "date" but there is an allowance for you so as to enable you to store them in your fridge for a while. Some people even have these items frozen and kept for a day or two past its sell-by date. A general guideline often points that it is still fine to consume such product for as long as they look and smell fresh. If something looks strange or smells odd, then toss it and don't take a chance.

As for shelf-stable items like canned foods, boxed food products like macaroni and cheese, mayonnaise and many more similar items, "best if used by" or "use by" dates are being used. Manufacturers of such products use such detail in order to convey to consumers that in fact their product will have its best taste before the date stated but is nearly always edible and safe passed this date. If in case you are a bit in doubt about whether or not to consume a product, the best tool for you to use is still your sense of smell and taste.

There are special machines that print these expiration and sell-by dates onto package. These id coders, as they are known, also responsible for printing serial numbers and batch numbers onto a variety of materials including glass jars, aluminum cans, foil bags, cardboard and more. These coders work very quickly and the ink used in an id coder dries quickly as well. There are quite a few brands of coders, including Altima coders, Imaje coders, Willett coders, Domino coders and others.

Most companies that use such machines often need replacement inks and make-up for these id coders. Buying directly from your coder manufacturer is quite expensive, and you can save money by purchasing from a special product id company with generic versions of these inks. In finding them you will be able to get high quality yet budget-friendly generic versions of VideoJet ink, Imaje ink, Domino ink and more.




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