It’s Thursday evening. You haven’t done a big food shop since the weekend, and after a long day at work and collecting the kids from school, it’s finally time to make dinner. They’re craving vegetable lasagne — luckily, you’re confident you’ve got everything you need in the fridge already.
As you gather the ingredients, you notice the cheese you opened for sandwiches on Saturday. The label says “consume within 3 days of opening” and today is day five. You pause. “Can I still use it, or should I throw it away?”
If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Food labels can be confusing, particularly when it comes to expiration, freshness, and storage instructions. In this guide, we’ll break down the rules and guidelines around best before, use by, and other date marks, helping you make safe choices, reduce waste, and keep your family nourished and happy.
How to read food date labels
Food packaging often carries different date marks, each serving a specific purpose. These are set by EU food labelling regulations to keep you safe. Understanding what they mean helps you decide when food is at its best, cut down on waste, and save a bit of money on your weekly shop.
Use-by date
This is about safety. Foods with a use-by or expiry date (often shown as UBD or EXP) — such as fresh meat, fish, chilled dairy, and ready-to-eat meals — should never be eaten once that date has passed. Harmful bacteria may be present even if the food looks, smells, or tastes fine. Always follow storage guidelines and cooking instructions, and remember that freezing before the use-by date can extend the product’s shelf life.
Best-before date
The best-before date (sometimes abbreviated to BB or BBE, for Best Before End) focuses on quality rather than safety. Foods past this date — like pasta, rice, tinned goods, frozen items, and snacks — may lose some of their freshness or flavour, but they’re generally safe to eat if stored properly. Tinned foods, however, lose their quality once opened, so be sure to transfer them to a container and into the fridge; consume within a few days and while still fresh. Remember to use your senses — sight, smell, and taste — to judge whether the food is still good.
Use-by and best-before date in different European languages
Knowing how to spot these labels in English is a great start, however you may be wondering how to identify these labels in your home country.
Here is a rundown of how these labels may appear in some languages across Europe:
Use-by (safety)
Italian: Consumare entro / Da consumarsi entro, Spanish: Fecha de caducidad (CAD), French: À consommer jusqu'au, German: Verbrauchsdatum, Dutch: Te gebruiken tot (TGT) or Uiterste houdbaarheidsdatum.
Best-before (quality)
Italian: Da consumarsi preferibilmente entro, Spanish: Consumir preferentemente antes del, French: À consommer de préférence avant, German: Mindesthaltbarkeitsdatum, Dutch: Tenminste houdbaar tot (THT).
As a rule of thumb, the key terms to watch for in any language are ‘preferably’ (consume preferably by…) or ‘minimum’ (the minimum date until which the manufacturer guarantees the quality). Both relate to quality rather than safety, and therefore indicate the best-before date.
Consume within X days
This applies once the packaging is opened. For example, cheese may say “consumption within 3 days of opening”. Some products, like canned goods, also include storage instructions, such as “store in a cool, dry place and, once opened, store in the fridge and consume within 14 days”.
Following these guidelines helps maintain safety, freshness, and nutrition.
Lot, batch or serial number
Batch or lot numbers are special codes made up of digits and sometimes letters. Manufacturers use them to track important details about a product. As consumers, we usually can’t understand these codes just by looking at them. Details within the code can include:
- Product model/variation
- Manufacturing or packaging date
- Manufacturing location
You’ll often find batch numbers printed close to the use-by or expiration date, or encoded in the barcode or QR code. The good news is that lot codes don’t display the manufacturing date directly; it’s hidden within the code. This means there’s little chance of confusing it with the expiration date.
The batch number matters because it links a product back to the exact production run it came from. That way, if there’s ever a safety issue or defect, companies can quickly trace it and let people know.
How long is food ok after the expiration date?
It really depends on the type of date you’re looking at. If it’s a use-by date, don’t take any chances — it’s about safety, so once that day has passed, it’s best to throw it away. Best-before foods are a bit more flexible. They might still be perfectly fine to eat, so give them a quick check with your eyes, nose, and taste before deciding.
However, if you come across a can that is bulging or damaged, think twice before opening it as this may be a sign of spoilage. The food inside could be unsafe to eat, as consuming it may cause a serious illness called botulism.1
| Label type | What it means | Which foods | Top tips |
| Use-by / expiration date (safety) | Eat by this date to stay safe. After this date, food could make you ill. | Perishable foods: fresh meat fish chilled dairy ready-to-eat meals | Check the fridge regularly, cook or freeze food before the date, don’t rely on smell alone. |
| Best-before date (quality) | Food is at its best until this date. It may still be safe to eat after, but quality could drop. | Longer-life foods: pasta rice biscuits canned goods frozen vegetables | Look, smell, and taste to see if it’s still good. |
| Storage instructions | Indicates where to store the food items. This may be in the fridge, or in a dry, cool place such as a cupboard. These instructions may vary once the product has been opened. | Any food with special storage requirements, such as canned goods that should be kept in a cool, dry place and, once opened, stored in the fridge and consumed within a certain number of days. Examples: “Keep refrigerated at 0–5°C”, “Once opened, consume within 3 days”. | Follow these carefully — the date is only valid if food is stored correctly. |
| Type, batch or serial number | Product model/variation Manufacturing or packaging date Manufacturing location | Apply to all packaged foods | These are only really a concern if something is wrong with the product, so the manufacturer can trace the source of the item.2 |
How to judge food quality beyond the label
Unsure about a best-before date? Your senses are your best tool for quality control:
- Sight: Check for mould, discolouration, or separation in dairy products.
- Smell: Avoid anything that smells sour, rancid, or “off”.
- Texture: Slimy coatings or unusual softness are signs that food is spoiled.
- Storage conditions: Correct refrigeration, freezing, and sealing will keep foods safe longer.
These practices help ensure freshness, nutrition, and safety while reducing unnecessary food waste.
Food safety labels aren’t perfect
Every year, around 59 million tonnes of food is wasted in Europe, and confusing food date labels play a part.3 A 2018 European Commission study found some common issues amongst food safety labels:4
- Dates that are hard to read.
- Lack of transparency about how companies determine the dates.
- Inconsistent storage instructions and ‘use by’ or ‘best before’ labels for the same products across different EU countries.
- Poor consumer understanding: fewer than half of the people surveyed knew what these dates actually mean.
The European Commission estimates that up to 10% of annual food waste is linked to misinterpreted date labels.5 Many perfectly good foods end up in the bin because shoppers aren’t sure if they’re still safe to eat.
How food businesses and retailers are adapting
To tackle this issue, businesses and retailers are stepping in, making labels clearer to help protect our health, our wallets, and reduce unnecessary food waste.
Making food safety labels clearer
One way of making food safety labels clearer is dynamic labels.
Dynamic labels are smart labels that change colour or texture to show freshness in real time. For example, Oli-Tec uses a colour-changing indicator, while Mimica uses a gel-based label that reveals bumps when the product starts to spoil.67 These technologies are still very new, so you won’t see them in your local supermarket just yet. But with rapid innovation in food safety, it’s likely you’ll start noticing more of these smart labels on shelves soon!
Removing unnecessary labels
In the UK, supermarkets like Waitrose, Marks & Spencer, the Co-op, and Morrisons are making date labels clearer to help reduce waste. By removing unnecessary “best-before” or “use-by” dates on items such as tomatoes, apples, potatoes, and pears, they’re encouraging shoppers to trust their senses instead of throwing away perfectly good food.8 Retailers also decide which products to sell close to their expiry date based on in-store checks and safety policies.
Smart tech
Technology and smarter logistics are also playing a big role. Businesses are using AI and inventory management tools to monitor storage conditions like temperature and humidity, track stock to avoid over-ordering, and optimise delivery routes — all helping to reduce waste before products even reach the shelves.
Try stock management at home!
Next time you are rearranging your cupboards, try the First Expired First Out (FEFO) method to help you cut down on food waste while ensuring food safety. This clever technique, adopted from professional kitchens and food businesses, will have you fighting food waste like a pro.
Food banks
Big or small, food recovery projects across Europe are making a real difference. One example is Mercabarna, Europe’s largest fresh food market, and its initiative called Foodback. Through this project, Mercabarna teams up with Catalonia’s biggest food bank, Banc dels Aliments, to rescue leftover fruit and vegetables. Thanks to this effort, more than 850,000 kilos of food are given to people in need every year.9
Awareness campaigns
At home, understanding and correctly interpreting date labels is just as important. Doing so helps households save money, reduce waste, and retain nutrition. Campaigns like Too Good To Go’s “Look-Smell-Taste” encourage consumers to check food with their senses before discarding it, showing that items past their best-before date can often still be perfectly fine to eat.10
Policy spotlight: What the EU is doing
The European Commission is taking steps to make food labels clearer, more helpful, and easier to understand for everyone. Key actions include:11
- Make “use by” and “best before” dates clearer so people can better understand when food is safe to eat and reduce food waste.
- Make food labels based on reliable science and public feedback, using sources like the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the Joint Research Centre (JRC), and public surveys.
- Carefully test different label options to find the best way to help people make healthy and sustainable food choices.
Smarter choices in your kitchen
Food date labels are there to guide us — they don’t need to rule your kitchen. By understanding use by (safety) and best before (quality), and trusting your senses, you can:
- Waste less food.
- Reduce household costs.
- Keep your family safe.
A little knowledge about food expiry can go a long way — saving you money and helping the planet. By adopting these simple habits, you’re not only keeping yourself and your family safe and healthy, but also making a real impact on sustainability and smarter food use.
