It’s amazing how much sway an expiration date can have. There are loads of goobers (this author included) who assume food turns into a super deadly poison the moment it passes the scary date featured on the label. After all, everyone knows the leading cause of death in North America today is drinking milk that’s three hours past the cutoff. That’s how everyone in my family died and I’m sure the same goes for yours.
Okay, that’s a bit of an overreaction, but how legit are expiration dates and what do they mean in terms of food safety? Cracked‘s Carmen Angelica has done the heavy lifting on the history and use of expiration dates and the truth is these things aren’t as reliable as you might think. In fact, there’s no exact science behind the practice.
The arrival of expiration dates originally came about thanks to shoppers being nervous about the freshness of supermarket items and grocers voluntarily adopted the “open dating system” to put customers at ease. This friendly arrangement has since been twisted so that the public treats expiration dates as gospel and companies are happy to replenish our kitchens with non-expired stock. The lack of regulation and transparency with these sorts of labels has resulted in loads of needlessly jettisoned products getting the heave-ho early because consumers are afraid for their health.
Hit play on the video nestled up top and rest easy knowing expiration dates aren’t as scary you originally thought.
(via Tastefully Offensive)
