{"id":4617,"date":"2008-04-10T09:52:33","date_gmt":"2008-04-10T15:52:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/wordpress\/?p=206"},"modified":"2013-08-26T16:47:13","modified_gmt":"2013-08-26T16:47:13","slug":"whats-in-a-label","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/b\/whats-in-a-label\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s In A Label?"},"content":{"rendered":"

After my last trip to the grocery store, I decided that food labels must be written in Greek and Latin.\u00a0 What was the difference in “Sell-By” and “Use-By?”\u00a0 What about “Best If Used By?”\u00a0 Was the food good until that date-then it expired?\u00a0 Was it good after that date?\u00a0 Hopefully the following will help you the next time you travel to the grocery store.<\/p>\n

Product dating is not required by Federal regulations unless it is baby formula or some baby foods.\u00a0 If a date is stamped on the package, there must be a phrase nearby explaining what it means.\u00a0 To make matters more confusing, there are no industry standards used for labeling foods.\u00a0 Some states have specific requirements, others do not.<\/p>\n

CLOSED DATING<\/span>: This appears on shelf stable products like canned goods and boxed products.\u00a0 This is a code only the manufacturer can decipher.\u00a0 It is usually a bar code of some type.\u00a0 You can call the manufacturer to ask for the key to crack the code!\u00a0 The exception for this type of dating is on fresh eggs.\u00a0 The date on the side of the carton tells the store the last day that they can sell the eggs.\u00a0 They continue to be safe to use up to three weeks after this date if handled safely.<\/p>\n

OPEN DATING<\/span>: a calendar date is stamped on the food to sell or use the product by that date.\u00a0 This is not a safety date, but a quality date.\u00a0 This is usually stamped on perishable foods. Many times, canned g\"Label<\/a>oods also have a date to use by on it.\u00a0 An example is the dating of diet pop.\u00a0 Certain sweeteners lose their flavor over time, so it is recommended that you only keep your diet pop in a cool place for less than 100 days.\u00a0 If it is stored someplace warm, it will lose its flavor faster.<\/p>\n

Types of Open Dates:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Sell-By: tells the store how long to display this item. You should buy the food before it expires. This allows 2-3 days for use at home after this date.<\/li>\n
  2. Best if Used By (Before): Date based on the best quality or flavor for\u00a0\u00a0 the\u00a0product, not a safety date.\u00a0 Most foods should be consumed by this date.\u00a0 This is usually placed on foods with a shelf life of 3-18 months, like cereal.<\/li>\n
  3. Use-By: this is the last recommended dated for the use of the product for peak quality.\u00a0 This date has been determined by the manufacturer.\u00a0 This is usually placed on foods with a shelf life of 6 weeks or less.\u00a0 It is recommended for safety, that you do not consume foods after this date.<\/li>\n
  4. Packed-On: This is the date the food was packed on, not when it was picked or made.<\/li>\n
  5. Expiration Date: This is the date the food is expected to expire.\u00a0 Do not use the food past this date.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    As with all foods, handle them safely for maximum storage life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    After my last trip to the grocery store, I decided that food labels must be written in Greek and Latin.\u00a0 What was the difference in “Sell-By” and “Use-By?”\u00a0 What about “Best If Used By?”\u00a0 Was the food good until that date-then it expired?\u00a0 Was it good after that date?\u00a0 Hopefully the following will help you the next time you travel Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9037,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-b","cat-44-id"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/sell-by.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4617"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4617"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9039,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4617\/revisions\/9039"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}