Expiration, Use-by, and Sell-by Date Information - Home Cooking

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Expiration date terminology
These terms all apply to unopened products.
•  Best if used by and use-by date: With emphasis on the bestqualifier in this term, it means the product should retain maximumfreshness, flavor and texture if used by this date. It is not apurchase-by or safety date. Beyond this date, the product begins todeteriorate, although it may still be edible.
•  Expiration date:If you haven‘t used the product by this date, toss it out. Other datingterms are used as a basic guideline, but this one means what it says.
•  Sell-by or pull-by date:This date is used by manufacturers to tell grocers when to remove theirproduct from the shelves, but there is generally still some leeway forhome usage. For example, milk often has a sell-by date, but the milkwill usually still be good for at least a week beyond that date ifproperly refrigerated.
•  Guaranteed fresh:This date is often used for perishable baked goods. Beyond this date,freshness is no longer guaranteed although it may still be edible.
•  Pack date:This is the date the item was packed, most-used on canned and boxedgoods. It is usually in the form of an encrypted code not easy todecipher. It may be coded by month (M), day (D), and year (Y), such asYYMMDD or MMDDYY. Or it may be coded using Julian (JJJ) numbers, whereJanuary 1 would be 001 and December 31 would be 365. In even moreconvoluted coding, letters A through M (omitting the letter I) areoften assigned to the months, with A being January and M beingDecember, plus a numeric day, either preceded or followed by thenumeric year.
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