THE TRUTH ABOUT BEST-BEFORE DATES

Best before

They are a quality guideline rather than a hard-and-fast safety recommendation so, as long as the food in question doesn’t make you involuntarily recoil due to an unusual appearance, funky smell or disconcerting texture or taste, feel free to ignore. Last year, Tesco removed best-before dates from most of its fresh fruit and veg packs altogether.

Use by

Unlike best-before recommendations, use-by dates are about safety and food hygiene. Certain foods – such as fresh or smoked fish, meat (though not cured meats) and ready-prepared salads – may contain harmful bacteria and if stored for too long or at the wrong temperature can cause food poisoning. As the Food Standards Agency warns: “Don’t trust the sniff test. Food can look and smell fine even after its use-by date, but that doesn’t mean it’s safe to eat. It could still be contaminated, and you cannot see, smell or taste the bacteria that causes food poisoning.”

Watch out for… Ready-to-eat salads

Mixed greens and bagged salads might seem like unlikely suspects, but they have a tendency to contain harmful bacteria and usually have a use-by date that’s worth sticking to. One study showed that broken leaves in bags of salad may dramatically increase the risk of salmonella – juice from damaged leaves can boost growth of the food poisoning bug more than 2,400-fold. Rinse bagged salad thoroughly, and don’t let it get warm.

Eggs

Some say storing them in the fridge at a temperature below 5C (41F) can prevent the growth of salmonella for a few weeks after their use-by date, but the NHS states eggs have a shelf life of 28 days (from date laid to best-before date).

Soft cheese

Hard cheese is safe to eat after its best-before date (and can even be grated and frozen). Even if it has turned mouldy, the inside will still be safe to eat, and can often last three to six weeks ( just scrape off the mould). But don’t eat soft cheeses past the use-by date, and they should usually be consumed a week after opening (as if we needed an excuse to polish off the Camembert).