Use by and best before: which date you cannot break

British packaging carries two different dates, and confusing them is costly both ways. Some people throw out perfectly good food; others eat something unsafe. The distinction is simple: use by is about safety, best before is about quality.

What is the difference between use by and best before?

Use by marks the day after which food is no longer safe to eat. Eating it past that date risks making you ill, and the product may look perfectly fine. Smell and appearance are not judges here: the bacteria that put people in hospital do not announce themselves.

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Best before marks the day after which quality starts to drop. Food past it is usually safe, just not what you expected: drier bread, softer biscuits, weaker flavour. Here you can trust your eyes, nose and taste — checking bread for visible mould, for instance.

Can you eat food after its use-by date?

Yes, but only in one case: if you cooked or froze it on or before that date. Freezing stops bacteria growing, so anything put in the freezer in time stays safe.

If you cooked something before its use-by date, the cooked dish should be cooled, refrigerated and eaten within 48 hours — or frozen.

Freezing properly, so that it counts

Keep the freezer at minus 18 degrees and follow the instructions on the packaging itself — the freezing and defrosting guidance there is not decoration.

Label what you freeze: what it is and when it was frozen. Three months on, identical white parcels defeat everyone.

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And the rule that matters most afterwards: use defrosted food within 24 hours. Refreezing something that has thawed is not a good idea.

What to do about it in practice

Sort the fridge on a two-shelf principle. On one, everything carrying a use-by date: meat, fish, prepared salads, dairy. That is a queue eaten by date, not by mood. On the other, the best-before items: grains, tins, dry goods, frozen food. There the date is a guide, not a verdict.

Anything with a use-by date you know you will not eat today goes into the freezer today, not tomorrow. By tomorrow it cannot be saved.

If something on the label is wrong

By law, labels must be accurate and not misleading. If information is missing or misleading — about ingredients, weights, the product description, allergens or health claims — report it to Trading Standards. In Northern Ireland, contact your local food safety team.

This is not a trifle: for someone with an allergy, a wrong label is not a question of quality but of hospital.