Can you safely eat foods beyond their best before dates?

As Canadians continue to feel the crush of high grocery costs, some people are choosing to disregard best before dates in hopes of stretching their dollar further.

A Dalhousie University Agri-Food Analytics Lab report revealed 58 per cent of respondents were willing to eat foods close to or past their best before dates in order to save money, even if it put them at risk of getting sick.

A food safety specialist and professor at the University of Guelph, Keith Warriner, said the practice might not be as risky as it seems.

“Once you get to the best before date, if it’s been treated right, it was a good quality to start with, it could well go beyond that best before date,” Warriner said.

However, he emphasized best before dates and expiry dates are not interchangeable and something past its expiry date is not safe to consume.

“When we talk about expiry dates, we’re actually talking about nutrient supplements. So these are where a nutrient declines with time because it’s stored. When it gets to a minimum level, that’s when it expires. Best before dates deal with quality.”

For some people who are struggling to stay fed, choosing to look beyond the best before date could be the difference between eating that day and going to bed hungry.

“The reality is, a best before date doesn’t necessarily mean that a food isn’t good anymore. A best before date on a food item simply indicates how long a food product will remain at its best quality in terms of taste, texture, and nutritional value,” The Food Bank of Waterloo Region CEO Kim Wilhelm said. “At the end of the day, it comes back to the individual consuming the product and what they’re comfortable with.”

The Food Bank of Waterloo Region follows guidelines set out by Food Banks Canada to ensure all good going out their door is safe to eat.

“We can distribute cans up to two years past the best before date. Boxed and bagged items up to one year past. Salad dressing and mayonnaise is up to six months past. Natural peanut butters and tetra packs up to three months past.”

Weighing the risks

Some best before dates may carry more weight than others.

“At the far side, the dangerous one: deli meats, seafood, soft cheese – when it says best before that means, ‘Yeah, don’t eat them afterwards,” Warriner explained.

“But this middle category – bacon, milk, yogurt, bread, pizzas – that’s where we have to have caution. Ideally they would be fine to that best before date and beyond. But sometimes they can develop early spoilage because we take all the preservatives out. So that’s where you’ve got to use your senses.”

He said foods like dry crackers, chips, and cans of food tend to carry the least amount of risk, but may degrade in quality over time.

When some foods start to develop mold, it may be tempting to simply cut the affected area away and eat what’s left, but that technique cannot be used with all foods.

“The thing is, that with mold, they produce something called mycotoxins which can make you feel ill, that can accumulate in your body. Now with hard cheese because it’s dry and solid, you can cut the mold out without any problems. But where the issues come is when you’ve got soft fruit – strawberries, peaches – because they’re soft the mycotoxins can diffuse through. So even if you find one moldy strawberry, don’t be tempted to say, ‘Well, I’ll just take that one out, we’ll have what’s there,’ because it will spread,” Warriner said.

When it comes to milk, Warriner said a strange taste may not necessarily mean the milk has spoiled.

“You’ll taste it and you might think it’s off or things like that. With milk it’s a bit different because sometimes it’s just natural yogurt fermentation. But there again, if you find it tastes off, don’t take the risk.”

And when it comes to eggs, he recommends doing a “float test” to see if it is still good.

“So eggs, obviously we buy eggs in trays and that, they are very expensive these days. They have a shelf life of around five weeks. But you can go well beyond that. The thing to test a good egg versus a bad egg is through the float test. Get just a glass of water, put your egg in – a good egg sinks to the bottom because it doesn’t have any air pockets. A bad egg floats to the top.”

He encourages people to use their senses, and at the end of the day, always go with your gut.

“We have to use our senses of smell, the taste, our eyes, and don’t take risks.”