# The morality of best before dates **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 8, 2017, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-morality-of-best-before-dates/776603 "2017-01-08T02:06:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2017, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-morality-of-best-before-dates/776603/41 "2017-01-08T21:56:30Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > I wish the store would sell me the older milk at a discount. In fact,everything that is past best-by. They likely [have a better customer](http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2013/10/22/salvage-grocery-stores-offers-wall-to-wall-discounts/). ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2017, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-morality-of-best-before-dates/776603/42 "2017-01-08T22:54:54Z")
That’s why we buy Lactaid milk, so we never need to check sell by dates. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2017, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-morality-of-best-before-dates/776603/43 "2017-01-09T05:10:27Z")
What’s the difference then between milk going bad, and milk just going sour? How would you be sure it’s safe? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2017, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-morality-of-best-before-dates/776603/44 "2017-01-09T07:22:15Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > What’s the difference then between milk going bad, and milk just going sour? How would you be sure it’s safe? Generally, uncontaminated milk becomes unpalatable (sour, lumpy) before it becomes unsafe - just because the populations of bacteria present - even in pasteurised milk - are of types that tend to sour or curdle it. Detecting when things are ‘bad’ is actually hard. Many food poisoning pathogens can be present at dangerous levels without affecting taste, smell or texture of foods or drink. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2017, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-morality-of-best-before-dates/776603/45 "2017-01-09T12:19:19Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > What’s the difference then between milk going bad, and milk just going sour? How would you be sure it’s safe? If it smells like poo or brackish water, that’s e. coli, not lactobacillus. Don’t drink it. Also, unlikely to be a problem. Pasteurized milk will turn solid long before it grows anything nasty these days. Listeria is probably the most realistic concern, but you’ll never know until you start getting diarrhea, so don’t worry about it. You’re more likely to get it from produce and frozen vegetables than pasteurized milk. (Raw milk, on the other hand…) In other words, your milk has probably never gone truly “bad”. Sour, lumpy, and gross, yes. But probably not actually bad. ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2017, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-morality-of-best-before-dates/776603/46 "2017-01-09T14:45:31Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > I don’t usually check the best before date, on the assumption that if it’s on the normal shelf it’s good. I often see goods on the shelf beyond their “best before” or “sell by” dates. On one occasion, every bottle of my favorite (obviously not everyone else’s favorite) orange juice was well past the date. Yesterday I finally finished off a carton of Birds Custard Powder that had a best before date of some time in 2007. It tasted fine all the way to the end. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2017, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-morality-of-best-before-dates/776603/47 "2017-01-09T15:01:43Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > Other: There’s no way in hell that I’m going to stand there and check that many gallons of milk for the dates. If the first gallon I pick up has an acceptable date, that’s the one I’m taking. I can’t recall looking at the dates of more than two to find one with a reasonable date, ever. There was one morning I went to the nearby convenience store for a half gallon of milk because I didn’t want to drive all the way to the grocery store. There was some old guy blocking the door to the milk cooler, pulling all of the milk jugs out of the cooler to find the one with the latest sell-by date. After waiting several minutes I finally said “If you’re going to be there all day can you just hand me one of those? I’m not picky.” I mean, seriously…if you’re \*that \* worried about it going bad, just buy a smaller carton. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2017, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-morality-of-best-before-dates/776603/48 "2017-01-09T17:44:22Z")
When I buy milk, the sell by date is far enough off I don’t usually worry about it. The gallon in my refrigerator, bought on 12/30, has a date of 1/15/17 on it. It will probably still be good on 1/22, but I’ll have finished it by then. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2017, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-morality-of-best-before-dates/776603/49 "2017-01-09T19:20:31Z")
I’m going to buy the freshest milk I can reasonably reach. I won’t get on all fours and crawl halfway through the refrigerator to get the one way in the back. But at a reasonable height, I’ll reach arm’s length into the back to get the milk with the latest date. ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2017, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-morality-of-best-before-dates/776603/50 "2017-01-09T20:20:29Z")
I grab the nearest carton and put it in my cart. I can’t remember the last time I looked at an expiration date on a carton of milk. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2017, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-morality-of-best-before-dates/776603/51 "2017-01-09T20:31:38Z")
I just don’t see why the OP sees an ethics issue: someone buying a fresh carton from the back has the same effect on the amount of older milk as that person not buying any milk at all. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2017, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-morality-of-best-before-dates/776603/52 "2017-01-10T19:33:48Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > I just don’t see why the OP sees an ethics issue: someone buying a fresh carton from the back has the same effect on the amount of older milk as that person not buying any milk at all. It’s already been explained upthread. If you view food wastage as a moral issue, then you will want to take the oldest milk that meets your needs. Since I’ve never in my life tasted a difference between milk in a few days, I would get the oldest milk in the OP’s scenario. Not because I think it’s that important a moral issue, but because I don’t really have any reason not to, so why not be that sliver more moral? ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2017, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-morality-of-best-before-dates/776603/53 "2017-01-10T20:37:04Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > It’s already been explained upthread. If you view food wastage as a moral issue, Good thing I don’t. It’s not like me buyer newer milk is going to make that starving child in Africa starve even harder. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2017, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-morality-of-best-before-dates/776603/54 "2017-01-19T22:44:11Z")
> [@Suburban\_Plankton](#): > > I grab the nearest carton and put it in my cart. I can’t remember the last time I looked at an expiration date on a carton of milk. Usually this. If I do think to look, I look at a couple and take whichever expires last. Most of the time the ones I do look at all have the same date anyway, I’m not looking at every carton, just a few. “You’re pretty sure the carton you buy will be empty in a week.” Actually, I’m pretty sure it won’t be, based on experience. Morality has nothing to do with it. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2017, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-morality-of-best-before-dates/776603/55 "2017-01-19T22:52:49Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > It’s already been explained upthread. If you view food wastage as a moral issue, then you will want to take the oldest milk that meets your needs. > > Since I’ve never in my life tasted a difference between milk in a few days, I would get the oldest milk in the OP’s scenario. Not because I think it’s that important a moral issue, but because I don’t really have any reason not to, so why not be that sliver more moral? The oldest milk is most likely to be wasted when it sits in my fridge too long and I have to dump it, whereas if I got the newest I would use more before it gets dumped. Still not moral though. No one extra is starving if I pour half a quart vs a quarter of a quart down the drain. No one extra is eating if Kroger sells me the milk I pour a quarter of away vs half of. I don’t like to waste food, but “people are starving” has nothing to do with what I do waste. “People are starving in China” was a dumb thing to say to get kids to eat back in the day, and it’s not gotten any smarter since. People starve because they don’t have access to food, not because I don’t eat all I take. They were never going to have that. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2017, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-morality-of-best-before-dates/776603/56 "2017-01-19T23:48:08Z")
[quote=“jtur88, post:8, topic:776603”] I don’t care. Everything is good for weeks, months or years after the best by date. I actually prefer to buy the oldest milk, because I like it when mine clabbers before I finish it. [quote] _Eeeww_. > [@](#): > > It’s not a moral issue. Consumers are the bottom feeders, and are forced to play by rules that are made unilaterally and non-negotiably by the owners of capital. If their imposed rules say you can search through the stock for the freshest product, then you can search through the stock for the freshest product. We are the [mongrels](https://youtu.be/ilxfgaEGHXg), underneath the table, Unaware of the banquet up above our heads. —Joan Osborne ---
**Author:** ![Elemenopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b5e925/32.png) [@Elemenopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elemenopy)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2017, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-morality-of-best-before-dates/776603/57 "2017-01-20T07:02:20Z")
Um, are we just talking about milk? Because we go through that quickly, date is not an issue. Brand is, however; where I live, some brands of milk taste oddly sweet or weirdly sour. Loose produce never has a date–we’re on our own here. Clearance meats–Yeah, I’ll look through those for a bargain every now and then. Expiry doesn’t matter much, because I usually “dry-age” meats at home for a few days before cooking (not hamburger mince, obviously). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-morality-of-best-before-dates/776603.md?page=2)