• snooggums@lemmy.world
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      14 days ago

      They are educated guesses, which have meaning. Requiring both is actually really good because it lets the buyer know how much time is between crispiest and best texture vs a conservative safety estimate. Right now only voluntarily using one or the other lets them scare people with a best by date that people read as a safety date.

      Obviously people should still check for mold and spoilage because no date will ever be perfect due to the wide possibilities of how the food is transported and stored, but knowing whether stale chips are also likely to be unsafe to eat would be good to know.

      • conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works
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        14 days ago

        Like I said, I’m all for it. And I think the current state is definitely too much wasted edible food.

        But I think they should also focus on requiring labeling that gives some standardized indicators of spoilage relevant to that specific food.

        Most packaged stuff like chips is so full of preservatives it’s pretty unlikely to be unsafe without clear visual indications.

        • snooggums@lemmy.world
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          14 days ago

          “Use by” dates are based on a conservative estimate of when it is likely to be spoiled.

          Sell by: when it should leave the store so the customer has a couple of says to eat it. Mostly used here on refridgerated meat and seafood.

          Use by/fresh befor/some others: date used for the food most likely being the right texture/flavor/etc.

          Best by: extremely unlikely to spoil before this date , although the further off the date is the more likely that it will be safe to eat well beyond this date. For some canned and frozen foods this is likely to be based on complete failure of texture or taste since properly canned and frozen food is safe indefinitely as long as those conditions are maintained.

          California us codifying those last two into the packaging so you don’t get only one or the other and clarifying what they are supposed to mean. There is not a more precise method that can be done, although the names are a bit too close to each other.

  • linearchaos@lemmy.world
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    14 days ago

    They might hedge it a little towards lessening waste but it’s a particularly difficult nut to crack.

    I’ve seen canned goods last a decade past a 2-year shelf life date. It’s largely dependent on the exact sterility of packing which in most cases is an undetectable variable.

    • leisesprecher@feddit.org
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      14 days ago

      I don’t know how exactly it’s set up in the US, but in Germany the best before date means essentially “we guarantee no substantial change”. That means, if the liquids in a yoghurt start to separate after a week, the date is one week after production, even though the complex refurbishment of “stirring” might make the product perfectly edible for weeks after. I’m involved in a local food sharing community and I’ve eaten yoghurts literally months after the official shelf life, they were fine.

      Two separate dates would already do the trick. Like “best before” and “not after”. Both are relevant, but they mean very different things.

      • linearchaos@lemmy.world
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        14 days ago

        I mean, that’s essentially what California is doing in the article.

        Products here are all over the place with Best by, use by, use or freeze by, majority of them contain the absolute minimum amount of time before product degradation. But a lot of products simply have a date on them without any explanation. It could be used by it could be best by or it could be date of manufacture on them.

        It would be good for us to get some better rules around it.