What Do \"Best By,\" \"Use By,\" and \"Sell By\" Dates Actually Mean?

Quick Answer: "Best By" means quality, not safety. "Sell By" is for store inventory, not your kitchen. "Use By" on raw meat and fish is the one date that actually matters. Most food that gets thrown away because of a printed date is still completely safe to eat.

Why Date Labels Cause So Much Unnecessary Food Waste

Here's a number worth sitting with: American families throw away an estimated $1,500 worth of food every year. A significant portion of that waste is driven not by food that has actually spoiled, but by confusion over what the dates printed on packaging actually mean.

The problem is that the United States has no single federal standard governing date labels on most foods. Manufacturers print dates however they choose, using whatever language they prefer. "Best By," "Best If Used By," "Use By," "Sell By," "Enjoy By," "Better If Used Before" — all of these can appear on packaging, and none of them are defined the same way by every company.

The result is that a well-intentioned person reads a date, sees that it has passed, and throws the food away. In most cases, that food was fine.

Understanding what these labels actually mean — and what they don't mean — is one of the simplest ways to waste less food and save real money.

"Best By" (Also: "Best If Used By," "Better If Used Before")

What it means: This is a quality date, not a safety date.

The manufacturer is telling you that the food will be at its best — best flavor, best texture, best color — before this date. After the date, some perceptible quality may start to decline. But the food does not become unsafe to eat.

Think of it like this: a bag of chips might be slightly less crispy the week after its "Best By" date. A bottle of salad dressing might taste slightly more muted. A box of cereal might be a little less crunchy. None of these are safety issues. They're quality issues.

Foods where "Best By" commonly appears:

• Canned goods (soups, beans, tomatoes, fruit)
• Breakfast cereals and crackers
• Condiments (ketchup, mustard, hot sauce, salad dressing)
• Dried pasta and rice
• Frozen vegetables
• Snack foods

How far past the date is typically safe:

The USDA explicitly states that "Best If Used By" dates are not safety dates. Foods with this label are safe to eat after the printed date, though some quality may be reduced.

What to do instead of automatically discarding: Use your senses. Does it look normal? Does it smell normal? Does it taste normal? If yes to all three, it's safe to eat. If something seems off in smell or appearance, that's a real signal — but the date alone is not.

"Sell By"

What it means: This date is for the retailer, not for you.

"Sell By" tells the store how long to display the product on the shelf. It's an inventory management tool. The assumption built into this date is that consumers will have a reasonable window of time at home to use the product after purchasing it.

This means that by the time you see a product with a "Sell By" date on a store shelf, it may already be close to that date — and that's fine, because the expectation is that you'll eat it within the next few days to a week.

Common foods with "Sell By" dates:

• Fresh pasta
• Milk and dairy
• Some fresh meats (though these often have "Use By" or "Best By" as well)
• Yogurt
• Packaged salad greens

Key point: If you buy something with a "Sell By" date and store it properly, it's typically safe to eat for several days past that date. Milk, for example, often remains fresh for 5–7 days past its "Sell By" date if it's been stored at the right refrigerator temperature (below 40°F / 4°C).

Never discard food based on "Sell By" alone. This date was never intended for consumers to interpret as a discard deadline.

"Use By"

What it means: This is the one date worth taking seriously.

"Use By" is the closest thing the food industry has to a true safety date. Manufacturers use it to indicate the last date on which a product should be consumed for safety, not just quality. It appears most commonly on highly perishable items where the risk of bacterial growth is a real concern.

Foods where "Use By" is most critical:

• Raw meat, poultry, and fish
• Ready-to-eat deli meats
• Some dairy products (fresh cheeses, soft cheeses)
• Refrigerated prepared meals and meal kits

What the USDA says: For raw meat, poultry, and fish, cook or freeze by the "Use By" date. If the date has passed and you haven't cooked it, discard it. This is the one scenario where the date label is genuinely a safety indicator.

The bacteria of concern in these foods — Salmonella, E. coli, Listeria, Campylobacter — don't always change the smell or appearance of food before they reach dangerous levels. This is why the sniff test alone isn't sufficient for raw meat and fish. Follow the date.

One important exception: If you freeze meat before the "Use By" date, you extend its safe life significantly. Freezing doesn't kill bacteria, but it prevents growth. Ground beef frozen before its "Use By" date is safe for 3–4 months. Chicken breasts, 9–12 months. Fish fillets, 6–8 months.

The Special Case: Infant Formula

This is the one category where a "Use By" or expiration date must be followed strictly without exception.

Infant formula is regulated by the FDA, and its expiration dates are tied to both safety and nutrient integrity. After the printed date, the nutritional content of formula degrades and cannot be guaranteed. For infants who depend on formula as their primary nutrition source, this matters enormously.

Never feed an infant formula that has passed its expiration date. This is not a quality concern — it's a safety and nutrition concern.

How to Actually Test Whether Food Is Still Good

For the vast majority of foods where "Best By" or "Sell By" dates have passed, your senses are reliable guides:

Smell: Trust your nose. Spoiled food almost always produces an off odor — sour, musty, rancid, or otherwise wrong. If something smells fine, that's meaningful information.

Look: Visible mold (other than the intentional kind in blue cheese or camembert) is a clear signal. Sliminess on fresh produce or meat, unusual discoloration, or significant texture changes are also real indicators.

Texture: Bread that's stale but not moldy is still edible — toast it. Slightly soft vegetables are usually fine for cooking. Yogurt that has separated slightly can be stirred back together and eaten.

Taste (when in doubt): For low-risk foods, tasting a small amount is a reasonable test. Off flavors will be apparent.

The combination of normal smell + normal appearance + normal texture = almost always safe to eat, regardless of a "Best By" date.

A Practical Reference: Which Dates to Follow

When Food Truly Needs to Go

Even with the best knowledge of date labels, some food genuinely reaches the end of its life — a piece of fruit that went soft in the back of the crisper, bread that grew mold, lettuce that wilted past the point of being edible.

When food is truly done, how you dispose of it makes a meaningful difference. Food that goes to a landfill gets buried without access to oxygen, where it breaks down anaerobically and produces methane — a greenhouse gas 84 times more potent than CO2 over a 20-year period. That methane from food waste is a real contributor to climate change.

Composting routes those scraps back into the soil instead. A countertop composter like Reencle processes food scraps continuously, turning them into usable compost rather than landfill methane. It's not a solution to buying food you won't eat — but for the scraps and true end-of-life food waste that happens in any kitchen, it closes the loop in the right direction.

The first step, though, is not throwing away food that's still good — and now you have the knowledge to make that call with confidence.