My wife decided to clean our our fridge last night. Invariably we got into a discussion about various sauces, etc. and their safety to consume. Many products have a “best used by” expiration date and others have a “sell by” date.
We had no argument on the “best used by” date products that were past due that should be discarded.
However, if a jar of asian cooking sauce has a “sell by date” of 3/30/11, and was purchased and opened 3 months ago, is it still safe to consume? I, who will eat most anything, said sure, it’s still good for another 4 months at least. She countered that the “sell by date” was good if it had not been opened and was still sealed, but that since it had been opened for 3 months, it should be tossed.
I of course acquiesced, because I learned a while ago, you don’t argue with an 8 month pregnant woman. But is there a correct answer? This may be more appropriate for IMHO, but thought I’d try GQ first.
A sealed food product has a shlf life as determined by the manufacturers label, once opened the it usually becomes hiigh risk food, unless we are talking pickles.
The usual convention is to state the ‘best before’ and then also something along the lines of, ‘Once opened, refigerate and consume within 3 days’
Note also, be careful, becuase differnat countries have differant conventions, in the UK we have ‘Use by’ dates - its illegal to have such products on display for public consumption after their date has expired - and its on all high risk food, whichmust always be stored under temperature controlled conditions.
‘Best before’ in the UK means that the food can be consumed after that date, but will have lost some desirable quality, such as texture - this is put on to low risk food, the sort of stuff that is safe to store at ambient temepratures - things like dried goods, most canned foods, high suger foods such as honey etc
Use By should be inferred to mean that if it’s been openened it should be discarded by that date.
Best By will imply that it is to be used by that date. It is usually a quality issue rather than a safety issue.
Sell By is a rotation date for the grocery store to determine how long something has been on the shelf. You will usually see these on products that have no definite shelf life established, such as canned goods.
I don’t see where a “sell by” date is really relevant here. It implies the food is safe/good to use for some time period after it’s sold, but sheds no light on for how long a time period.
It seems your real question has to do with how long something keeps after it has been opened. For some items, that can be 3 days, for others it can be months and months. Some things need to be refrigerated (e.g. meat to prevent spoilage, jelly to prevent mold) while others do not (e.g. dry cereal, Worcestershire sauce).
Offhand, I would expect an Asian cooking sauce to last for many months, especially if it has been refrigerated.
Stuff in jars with a “use by” date I’m never sure on myself and I usually gamble on using them until I can sense spoilage. I do this even when the label says “refrigerate after opening and consume within two weeks”, at least for stuff that I’m relatively certain has properties retarding spoilage. Tomato salsa for instance.
And some stuff I’ll use for years. I just used the last of a jar of mixed dried herbs. The label said “use by September 2004”
In my experience, almost all perishable food has separate instructions for storage after opening, i.e. whether it should be refrigerated and how long it can safely be kept for.
So the jar should say, e.g. “Once open, keep refrigerated and use within three weeks.” Or vacuum-packed ham with a relatively long “best before” date (if unopened) will recommend using it within three days once opened.
It’s for this reason that I try (generally unsuccessfully so far) to get my wife to write the date she opened the packet/jar on it, so that I don’t have to resort to the sniff test on that half-used packet of ham at the back of the fridge.