Use-by date vs best-before date: meaning and difference

What does use-by date mean?

The use-by date is the last day a food is safe to eat. It appears on highly perishable, chilled products such as fresh meat, fish, dairy, salads and ready meals. After the use-by date, do not eat, cook or freeze the food — even if it looks and smells fine — because it could cause food poisoning.

This is the official definition used by the Food Standards Agency (FSA), the UK food safety regulator. Its guidance on best-before and use-by dates is unambiguous: the use-by date is about safety, not quality. Here is what that means in practice:

• use-by dates appear on foods that must be kept in the fridge: raw chicken, beef, pork and bacon, fish, cooked sliced meats, soft cheeses, dips such as hummus, and chilled ready meals;
• food past its use-by date can carry bacteria you cannot see, smell or taste — the sniff test tells you nothing about listeria or salmonella;
• the date is only valid if you follow the storage instructions on the pack (for example “keep refrigerated below 5 °C”) and any “once opened, use within” advice;
• you can cook or freeze the food up to and including the use-by date to extend its life — see the freezing rules below.

Use-by vs best-before: the difference at a glance

Both dates come from the same labelling law — EU Regulation 1169/2011 on food information to consumers, which the UK kept in its own law after Brexit — but they mean very different things:

What does best-before date mean?

The best-before date (sometimes printed as BBE, “best before end”) tells you when a food is at its best quality. According to the FSA, food past its best-before date is usually still safe to eat — it may simply have lost some flavour, texture or nutritional value. The key conditions: the packaging must be unopened and undamaged, and the food stored as instructed.

Which foods carry a best-before date?

• Examples of foods with best-before date labels:
• Dry products: starches (pasta, rice, semolina, bulgur, oats, lentils, chickpeas, beans, flour), seasonings (pepper, herbs, oil, soy sauce, ketchup, mustard), tea, coffee, chocolate, crisps, biscuits, honey;
• Dehydrated products: powdered milk, instant mash;
• Sterilised products: UHT milk and cream, cartons of soup, fruit juice;
• Canned and preserved products: tinned peas, sweetcorn, sardines, jars of sauce;
• Frozen products: and increasingly, fresh milk and yogurt — several UK retailers have switched them from use-by to best-before to cut waste (see below).

Can you eat eggs past the best-before date?

Eggs are a special case. In the UK, as in the EU, the best-before date on eggs is set by law at a maximum of 28 days after the laying date. Concerns about salmonella mean many households bin them on the dot — usually needlessly.

FSA guidance is that eggs can still be eaten a day or two after their best-before date, provided they are cooked thoroughly until both white and yolk are firm, or used in fully cooked dishes such as cakes. Salmonella contamination in UK-produced (British Lion) eggs is low, and thorough cooking kills the bacteria. Unsure whether an egg is still fresh? Drop it into a glass of water: if it sinks, it is fresh; if it floats, throw it away — ideally into your compost.

Which foods have no date at all?

Some foods are exempt from date marking altogether under Annex X of Regulation 1169/2011, because they keep almost indefinitely or are eaten straight away:

• fresh fruit and vegetables (including potatoes) that have not been peeled, cut or processed;
• wines, sparkling wines and other drinks containing 10% or more alcohol by volume;
• vinegar;
• cooking salt;
• solid sugar;
• sweets made almost entirely of sugar;
• chewing gum;
• bread, baked goods and pastries normally eaten within 24 hours of baking.

What these foods have in common: salt, sugar, alcohol or acidity stop micro-organisms from growing. That is why pickles in vinegar or peppers in oil keep for months. Loose, unpackaged foods sold by weight are also outside the date-marking rules.

How long after the date can you eat each food?

It depends entirely on which date is printed. After a best-before date, the margin runs from days to years depending on the product. After a use-by date, the safe answer is zero: the FSA says food past its use-by date should not be eaten, cooked or frozen, however normal it looks.

Indicative margins by food family

Trust your senses — for best-before foods only

For products carrying a best-before date — and only for those — your senses are the best waste-prevention tool before you throw anything away:

1. Look: mould on jam, sauce or soft food means it goes in the bin (or the food waste caddy). The thin white layer on old chocolate is harmless bloom, not mould.
2. Smell: milk that smells sour or biscuits that smell stale have lost quality; a strong or rancid odour means throw it away.
3. Touch: milk that has turned goes lumpy, and old yogurt separates into liquid and grainy layers.
4. Taste a tiny amount last, only if everything else seems normal — and never for a use-by product.

Freezing food: the FSA rules

Freezing is the simplest way to stop the clock on food approaching its date. The FSA’s chilling, freezing and defrosting guidance sets out four golden rules:

• freeze food up to and including its use-by date — bacteria cannot grow on frozen food, so freezing on the date itself is safe;
• defrost safely, ideally overnight in the fridge, never on the worktop where the surface warms while the core is still frozen;
• eat defrosted food within 24 hours, cooked until steaming hot — once thawed, it spoils just like fresh food;
• never refreeze raw food that has already been defrosted: bacteria multiply during thawing, and slow domestic refreezing gives them time to grow.

Keep your freezer at -18 °C and your fridge between 0 and 5 °C. Two more habits protect the cold chain: go through the frozen aisle last when shopping, and put frozen items away first when you get home. If you cook food before its use-by date instead of freezing it, cool it, refrigerate it and eat it within 48 hours (or freeze the cooked dish).

What happens if you eat expired food?

The health risks

Eating food past its use-by date exposes you to food poisoning: nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and fever, typically within hours to a couple of days. Drink plenty of fluids, eat light and see a doctor if symptoms persist. In rarer cases, pathogenic bacteria cause serious illness: salmonellosis (undercooked eggs, raw meat), listeriosis (cooked sliced meats, soft and unpasteurised cheeses — particularly dangerous during pregnancy) or botulism (badly preserved canned food). After a best-before date, by contrast, there is normally no safety risk: at worst, the food is less tasty.

What the rules say for shops

Retail law draws the same line between the two dates:

• selling food past its use-by date is an offence in the UK — products must be removed from sale once the date has passed, and local authority environmental health teams can prosecute;
• selling food past its best-before date is legal, at the retailer’s responsibility — this is how discount “anti-waste” shelves and surplus-food retailers operate;
• in India, FSSAI rules are stricter on paper: no pre-packaged food may be sold past its declared “Expiry/Use By” date.

Food waste: how to reduce it?

According to WRAP’s UK food waste key facts, the UK wastes around 10.7 million tonnes of food a year, and about 60% of it comes from households — some 6.4 million tonnes, most of which was still edible when it was thrown away. Understanding date labels is one of the easiest ways to shrink that pile, alongside your wider carbon footprint: wasted food means wasted farming, packaging and transport emissions.

Everyday habits that cut waste

1. Buy only what you need: plan meals for the week, check the fridge before shopping, and eat first the foods closest to their date.
2. Store food properly: fridge between 0 and 5 °C, freezer at -18 °C, dry goods in airtight jars away from light and heat.
3. Cook the leftovers: stale bread becomes French toast or breadcrumbs, tired vegetables become soup, overripe fruit becomes compote.
4. Freeze before the date: anything you will not eat in time can be frozen up to and including its use-by date.
5. Compost the rest: peelings, eggshells and coffee grounds belong in the compost bin, and many councils turn food waste caddies into energy through anaerobic digestion.

Apps and shops that help

• most supermarkets discount products close to their date — look for the reduced-to-clear shelf;
• apps such as Too Good To Go and Olio let you buy or collect surplus food from shops, cafés and neighbours at a fraction of the price;
• ask for a doggy bag in restaurants rather than leaving food on the plate — keeping food in use is a small everyday win for the circular economy.

Discover more practical guides on recycling and protecting the environment.