A suggestion to manufacturers or lawmakers to improve Food and other items with a shelf life

I'm starting to check the expiration date on several food items and non food items. It would be nice if every manufacturer would make the date clear and readable rather than use a code you have to figure out if you can or squint your eyes to be able to read anything.

I suggest the expiration date be added to the nutrition label in a clear readable format for all food items with the possible exception of fresh fruits and vegetables since that is something you tend to have to look and check out yourself. I would also include non food items such as contact lens solution and anything else that has a shelf life that could affect your health if you used it past the expiration date. If something such as contact lens solution doesn't have a nutrition label, then maybe a readable box on the side of the container indicating the expiration date would be nice. I suggest a format such as
EXPIRATION DATE: SEPT 12, 2012

with big enough letters so that you don't have to squint your eyes and have it printed on the label instead of the creases on the side or bottom or top of a container in almost unreadable print or a code.

...or you can smell the milk before you drink it.


Just sayin'

reply to post by boncho


Milk is probably the only thing in which the expiry date is clear on, so good job sir. Generally canned stuff will last years and years and other perishables can be examined by smelling/touching/looking so even though it would help its not a huge problem. Most people (hopefully) can tell for themselves whether food is good or bad.

They are easy to read to me most say EXP 00//00
Some have just the month and year without the EXP, isn't that hard

What's the point, most expiration and sell by dates are a scam to get you to chuck perfectly good food away and go buy more anyway. The nose and eyes are seldom wrong.

Originally posted by Suspiria
What's the point, most expiration and sell by dates are a scam to get you to chuck perfectly good food away and go buy more anyway. The nose and eyes are seldom wrong.

MOre like the other way around. Food is loaded with chemicals to make it SEEM like it has not gone bad when it went bad LONG ago.

Pretty much anything with an expiration date should not be eaten in the first place.

we have that here in the uk .but i sometimes keep bread for a month to show friends how it does not go off .its irradiated to preserve it along with fruit to maximise profit .when i was young bread lasted 3 days

I am forced to live by those damn dates. I no longer have any natural digestive immune system, so getting food poisoning is a death sentence. I have to also eat mostly organic and/or unprocessed foods as much as possible and that means no preservatives. A diet like this sucks when you live alone - you never find food in small quantities. It takes me weeks to finish something that most people go through in days. Did you know tofu DOES go horribly bad after a week or so of being opened? Do you know what spoiled Egg Beaters taste like?

This is why I dream of living on a big farm - grow my own shtuff and not worry about some dork not washing their hands enough to prevent the spread of E-coli.

Use by dates are a scam. I had a yoghurt in the fridge that said best by Nov/11 and at the end of Jan/12 I was still using it and it was absolutely fine.
I always keep my bread until it is used up, its in the fridge and may get a little stale but if there is no mould, who cares?
Vegetables are used until they look and feel 'wrong'. This is usually more than a months after the suggested date. The only thing I do slightly adhere to the date with are eggs but only roughly. I have used eggs a few days after best by date and they were OK.

Don't be mugs people. Trust your eyes, nose and taste buds, there are no written in stone rules. Supermarkets want you to throw away as quickly as possible so you'll go and buy more. Actually I read the other day that Britain is going to change the law and some foods will not even have a best by date any longer.