Should You Throw Away Expired Food?

Some of the foods you might be throwing away are perfectly safe to eat

Headline Goes Here

When it comes to expiration dates on food packages, it can get a bit confusing to keep straight what foods are safe and for how long.

 Turns out some of the foods you might be throwing away are perfectly safe to eat.

 Most cases of food poisoning come from improper storage, not "expired" foods. This is especially true of those "sell by" dates.

According to NPR's The Salt, the sell by dates on food packaging have to do with a certain grade that the food gets:






While you can use most of the foods past their printed date, the USDA recommends that you eat food before its "Use By" or "Best If Used By" date to be on the safe side. For foods with a "Sell By" date, you have a pretty set amount of time before the food goes bad. Milk will usually go bad about a week after the Sell By date, while eggs are okay for 3 to 5 weeks. See the table to the right for the USDA's recommendations, or head to their product dating page for even more foods.



