Certain items in your house practically scream “toss me” when their prime has passed. That mysterious extra white layer on the Cheddar? A sure sign it needs to be put out of its misery. Chunky milk? Down the drain it goes.
- Frozen Food Expiration Dates Unopened List
- Frozen Food Expiration Dates Unopened 2017
- Frozen Food Expiration Dates Unopened
But what about that jar of olives or Maraschino cherries that has resided in your refrigerator since before the birth of your kindergartner? Or the innumerable nonedibles lurking deep within your cabinets and closets: stockpiled shampoo and toothpaste, seldom-used silver polish? How do you know when their primes have passed?
With help from experts and product manufacturers, Real Simple (http://www.realsimple.com/) has compiled a guide to expiration dates. These dates are offered as a rough guideline. The shelf lives of most products depend upon how you treat them. Edibles, unless otherwise indicated, should be stored in a cool, dry place. (With any food, of course, use common sense.) Household cleaners also do best in a dry place with a stable temperature. After the dates shown, beauty and cleaning products are probably still safe but may be less effective.
Food
Beer
Unopened: Starts to lose flavor after 110 days.
It’s best to store bottles in boxes, and then in dark place.
Stronger alcohol and higher levels of hops might extend the shelf life of a beer.
One example is Michelob Craft Specialty beers, which are often at their peak with 180 days.
(Source: Budweiser support)
Brown sugar
Indefinite shelf life, stored in a moisture proof container in a cool, dry place.
Chocolate (Hershey bar)
1 year from production date
Coffee, canned ground
Unopened: 2 years
Opened: 1 month refrigerated
Coffee, gourmet
Beans: 3 weeks in paper bag, longer in vacuum-seal bag (After this time, color or flavor may be affected, but product is still generally safe to consume.)
Ground: 1 week in sealed container
Coffee, instant
Unopened: Up to 2 years
Opened: Up to 1 month
Diet soda (and soft drinks in plastic bottles)
Unopened: 3 months from 'best by' date.
Opened: Doesn't spoil, but taste is affected.
Dried pasta
12 months
Frozen dinners
Unopened: 12 to 18 months
Frozen vegetables
Unopened: 18 to 24 months
Opened: 1 month
Honey
Indefinite shelf life
Juice, bottled (apple or cranberry)
Unopened: 8 months from production date
Opened: 7 to 10 days
Ketchup
Unopened: 1 year (After this time, color or flavor may be affected, but product is still generally safe to consume.)
Opened or used: 4 to 6 months (After this time, color or flavor may be affected, but product is still generally safe to consume.)
Maple syrup, real or imitation
1 year
Maraschino cherries
Unopened: 3 to 4 years
Opened: 2 weeks at room temperature; 6 months refrigerated
Marshmallows
Unopened: 40 weeks
Opened: 3 months
Mayonnaise
Unopened: Indefinitely
Opened: 2 to 3 months from “purchase by” date (After this time, color or flavor may be affected, but product is still generally safe to consume.)
Mustard
2 years (After this time, color or flavor may be affected, but product is still generally safe to consume.)
Olives, jarred (green with pimento)
Unopened: 3 years
Opened: 3 months
Olive oil
2 years from manufacture date (After this time, color or flavor may be affected, but product is still generally safe to consume.)
Peanuts
Unopened: 1 to 2 years unless frozen or refrigerated
Opened: 1 to 2 weeks in airtight container
Peanut butter, natural
9 months
Peanut butter, processed (Jif)
Unopened: 2 years
Opened: 6 months; refrigerate after 3 months
Pickles
Unopened: 18 months
Opened: No conclusive data. Discard if slippery or excessively soft.
Protein bars (Power Bars)
Unopened: 10 to 12 months. Check 'best by' date on the package.
Rice, white
2 years from date on box or date of purchase
Salad dressing, bottled
Unopened: 12 months after 'best by' date
Opened: 9 months refrigerated
Soda, regular
Unopened: In cans or glass bottles, 9 months from 'best by' date
Opened: Doesn't spoil, but taste is affected
Steak sauce
33 months (After this time, color or flavor may be affected, but product is still generally safe to consume.)
Tabasco
5 years, stored in a cool, dry place
Tea bags (Lipton)
Use within 2 years of opening the package
Tuna, canned
Unopened: 1 year from purchase date
Opened: 3 to 4 days, not stored in can
Soy sauce, bottled
Unopened: 2 years
Opened: 3 months (After this time, color or flavor may be affected, but product is still generally safe to consume.)
Vinegar
42 months
Wine (red, white)
Unopened: 3 years from vintage date; 20 to 100 years for fine wines
Opened: 1 week refrigerated and corked
Worcestershire sauce
Unopened: 5 to 10 years (After this time, color or flavor may be affected, but product is still generally safe to consume.)
Opened: 2 years
Household Products
Air freshener, aerosol
2 years
Antifreeze, premixed
1 to 5 years
Antifreeze, concentrate
Indefinite
Batteries, alkaline
7 years
Batteries, lithium
10 years
Bleach
3 to 6 months
Dish detergent, liquid or powdered
1 year
Fire extinguisher, rechargeable
Service or replace every 6 years
Fire extinguisher, non-rechargeable
12 years
Laundry detergent, liquid or powdered
Unopened: 9 months to 1 year
Opened: 6 months
Metal polish (silver, copper, brass)
At least 3 years
Miracle Gro, liquid
Opened: 3 to 8 years
Miracle Gro, liquid, water-soluble
Indefinite
Motor oil
Unopened: 2 to 5 years
Opened: 3 months
Mr. Clean
2 years
Paint
Unopened: Up to 10 years
Opened: 2 to 5 years
Spray paint
2 to 3 years
Windex
2 years
Wood polish (Pledge)
2 years
Beauty Products
All dates are from the manufacture date, which is either displayed on the packaging or can be obtained by calling the manufacturer's customer-service number.
Bar soap
18 months to 3 years
Bath gel, body wash
3 years
Bath oil
1 year
Body bleaches and depilatories
Unopened: 2 years
Used: 6 months
Body lotion
3 years
Conditioner
2 to 3 years
Deodorant
Unopened: 2 years
Used: 1 to 2 years
For antiperspirants, see expiration date
Eye cream
Unopened: 3 years
Used: 1 year
Face lotion
With SPF, see expiration date. All others, at least 3 years
Foundation, oil-based
2 years
Foundation, water-based
3 years
Hair gel
2 to 3 years
Hair spray
2 to 3 years
Lip balm
Unopened: 5 years
Used: 1 to 5 years
Lipstick
2 years
Mascara
Unopened: 2 years
Used: 3 to 4 months
Mouthwash
Three years from manufacture date
Nail polish
1 year
Nail-polish remover
Lasts indefinitely
Perfume
1 to 2 years
Rubbing alcohol
At least 3 years
Shampoo
2 to 3 years
Shaving cream
2 years or more
Tooth-whitening strips
13 months
Wash'n Dri moist wipes
Unopened: 2 years
Opened: Good until dried out
Beauty Supplies Expiration Dates
Anti-aging and acne treatment
Three months to a year. Antioxidants are easily oxidized, so be on the lookout for any changes in color.
Bar soap
Up to three years.
Bath oil
One year.
Blush/Bronzer
18 months after first use
Body lotion
Two to three years, particularly if it’s in a pump container.
Concealer
12 months after first use
Creme eye shadow
6 months after first use
Frozen Food Expiration Dates Unopened List
Creme blush
12 months after first use
Deodorant
Up to two years.
Eye and lip pencils
Three to five years. Sharpen them before each use as a way to preserve them and keep them clean.
Facial Moisturizer
12 months after first use
Foundation
About two years. Most bottles are designed to last that long. And if you don’t use it, chances are you didn’t love it to begin with.
Hairstyling products
Three to five years. Most are alcohol-based, which helps preserve the formula.
Lipstick and lip gloss
18 months after first use
Liquid eyeliner
3 months after first use
Liquid Foundation
6 months after first use
Mascara and liquid eyeliner
Three to four months. Make sure you’re diligent about replacing these items to prevent contamination and infections.
Nail polish
18 months after first use
Perfume
About two years. To get more mileage out of a perfume, resist the temptation to display a pretty bottle on your vanity. Instead, stash it away in a cool, dark place.
Shampoo, conditioner, and shower gel
About three years.
Shaving cream
About two years.
Skin care products
6 months after first use
Sunscreen
6 months after first use
Learn the Lingo of Expiration Dates
The actual term 'Expiration Date' refers to the last date a food should be eaten or used. Last means last -- proceed at your own risk.
More commonly spotted terms are:
- 'Sell by' date. The labeling 'sell by' tells the store how long to display the product for sale. You should buy the product before the date expires. This is basically a guide for the retailer, so the store knows when to pull the item. This is not mandatory, so reach in back and get the freshest. The issue is quality of the item (freshness, taste, and consistency) rather than whether it is on the verge of spoiling. Paul VanLandingham, EdD, a senior faculty member at the Center for Food and Beverage Management of Johnson & Wales University in Providence, R.I., tells WebMD the 'sell by' date is the last day the item is at its highest level of quality, but it will still be edible for some time after.
- 'Best if used by (or before)' date. This refers strictly to quality, not safety. This date is recommended for best flavor or quality. It is not a purchase or safety date. Sour cream, for instance, is already sour, but can have a zippier, fresh taste when freshly sour (if that's not an oxymoron!)
- 'Born on' date. This is the date of manufacture and has been resurrected recently to date beer. Beer can go sub-par after three months. 'It is affected by sun,' VanLandingham says. The light can reactivate microorganisms in the beer. That's why you have to be especially careful with beer in clear bottles, as opposed to brown or green.
- 'Guaranteed fresh' date. This usually refers to bakery items. They will still be edible after the date, but will not be at peak freshness.
- 'Use by' date. This is the last date recommended for the use of the product while at peak quality. The date has been determined by the manufacturer of the product.
- 'Pack' date. You will find this one on canned or packaged goods, as a rule, but it's tricky. In fact, it may be in code. It can be month-day-year-MMDDYY. Or the manufacturer could revert to the Julian calendar. January would then be 001-0031 and December 334-365. It gets even weirder than that.
You can keep dry, boxed pasta for one to two years past its printed date.
Breakfast cereal lasts six to eight months beyond the date on the box when it's unopened.
No matter what date is on the carton, you can use eggs within three to five weeks of purchasing them.
Raw meat and poultry keep long past their sell-by date if you freeze them.
Appearance and odor tell you more about whether cheese is spoiled than the date on the package.
Frozen Food Expiration Dates Unopened 2017
Leafy greens, including bagged salads, can be revived with ice water if they begin to wilt.
You can keep dairy milk five days or more past its printed date.
Unopened packages of frozen fruit and frozen vegetables are good for eight to 10 months beyond their printed date.
When unopened, yogurt will last two to three weeks in the fridge past the date on the container.
Unopened jars of peanut butter can keep for up to a year past their printed date.
Some condiments, such as ketchup and mustard, are good for a year or two beyond their printed dates if the bottles are unopened.
Store employees use 'open dating,' the calendar date on food packages, to decide when to pull an item from the shelf. For consumers, the date indicates freshness or quality. Use both the date itself and the phrase in front of the date, such as 'use by' or 'best by' to make your decision on which milk carton or cookie package to choose.
Tips
Take an extra second or two when taking foods off the shelves at the store so you can bring home the item with the longest use-by or best-by date available.
Federal law doesn't require manufacturers or stores to use opening dating, except for infant formula, but some states have their own requirements. If manufacturers choose to use dates, they must indicate the month, the day and a phrase explaining the date:
- Sell by means that the store will pull the item after that date passes. You can still use the product after the date passes once you get it home.
- Best by, Best if Used Before and Use by indicate that the quality of the product will suffer after the date passes. Breads or cookies will turn dry, granola bars may lose their crunch and a square of baking chocolate may turn whitish, but none of those conditions make the food unsafe.
Tips
Eggs are in a class by themselves when it comes to dating. A three-digit code on the carton represents the day the eggs were packed, with January 1 indicated as 001 and December 31st as 365. The sell-by date can be up to 45 days beyond the pack date, but you can still use the eggs safely after that time for an additional 3 to 5 weeks, according to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln website.
Open dating doesn't tell you whether or not your food is safe. According to a 2013 report by the Natural Resources Defense Council, Americans waste 160 billion pounds of food each year, mistakenly throwing away products because they believe that open dating indicates whether or not a food is safe to eat.
Because food within a 'use by' or 'best by' date can still be unsafe due to improper storage either at the store or at your home, learning about food safety is essential. You can do this in a number of ways:
- Refer to a Food Keeper's Guide, such as one published by the Food and Marketing Institute, to tell you how long a certain food stays safe at room temperature, in the fridge or in the freezer.
- Educate yourself about food safety, including what temperature to keep your refrigerator adjusted to, how long to cook foods for or how to properly wash foods. The U.S. Department of Agriculture publishes a wealth of information on the subject.
Steak, eggs, canned soup — all kinds of fridge and pantry staples have a best before date on the packaging. People often confuse best before dates with expiration dates, but the two labels tell consumers very different things.
'It's confusing,' says Ellie Topp, a professional home economist. '[The best before] date has nothing to do with the safety of the food. It has everything to do with the taste of the food.'
Here are five things you may not know about expiration and best before dates.
1. Only 5 types of products have expiration dates
Expiration dates tell consumers the last day a product is safe to consume. A food should never be consumed after the expiry date.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency mandates that only five types of products need to be labelled with an expiration date:
- Baby formula and other human milk substitutes.
- Nutritional supplements.
- Meal replacements.
- Pharmacist-sold foods for very low-energy diets.
- Formulated liquid diets.
Best before dates are found on foods that will only stay fresh for 90 days or less. Some foods may be consumed even if their best before date has passed, unlike an expiry date.
2. Best before dates guarantee freshness
An unopened, properly stored product's best before date tells a consumer how long that food will keep its flavour and nutritional value. It doesn't have anything to do with a food's safety, says Topp.
If someone fries or poaches a fresh egg, she says, it will stay together in 'a nice, little package.' If they use an egg beyond its best before date, it will spread out more and the yolk may be more likely to break.
'But, there's nothing wrong with the egg,' she says, 'as long as it's not cracked.'
The manufacturer's nutritional claims may no longer apply after a best before date or if the product isn't properly stored, says Cathy Paroschy Harris, a dietitian and spokeswoman for Dietitians of Canada. Orange juice may not provide as much Vitamin C and milk less riboflavin past the best before date.
Other items may have compromised taste, but still be safe to eat. Ketchups and salsas may be more acidic, dry pasta may break when cooked, and cookies at the back of the pantry may just taste bad. It's generally the taste, not safety that suffers.
However, foods must be properly stored according to package instructions to avoid turning mouldy or sour before their best before date.
3. Opened packages negate best before date
The best before date no longer applies if a package is opened or if the food is frozen, according to Health Canada.
Once a sealed product is exposed to air it can be cross-contaminated, says Brenda Watson, the Canadian Partnership for Consumer Food Safety Education's executive director.
The organization has a chart for how long different foods can be kept in a refrigerator or freezer. Watson recommends people purchase food with a short fridge life, like opened milk or cottage cheese, in quantities they're likely to consume quickly.
If a food is properly frozen two days before its best before date, says Paroschy Harris, it should be edible for another two days at the start of the thawing process.
4. Some foods to keep an eye out for
Even though some food remains edible — just less tasty and nutritionally dense — after its best before date, that doesn't mean all food is safe to eat when that date passes. Health Canada does not recommend eating anything after the best before date. The Canada Food Inspection Agency is more lenient.
When in doubt throw it out.— Ellie Topp, professional home economist
Generally, if the food changes colour or appearance, or develops a bad smell, it is no longer safe to eat. Dented, leaking or bulging cans should be discarded.
'When in doubt throw it out,' says Topp.
She's most cautious about cured meats, saying she would only keep deli meats, like baloney, a few days after purchase.
Hungry snackers should throw away mouldy cheese, breads, yogurts and other foods. Topp says people used to feel comfortable scraping mould off the top of food and continuing to eat it. Nowadays, that's not considered acceptable, as mould is believed to contaminate food beyond what's visible to the human eye, she says.
'It's like playing roulette,' she says. 'You're putting yourself at risk.'
A best before date and proper food handling go hand-in-hand, she says, and even lower-risk foods can become problematic if not handled properly.
Chips past their best before date won't be as crunchy, but they also may become contaminated if people sharing them have dirty hands or double dip in the salsa bowl.
'There's always a risk for something in food to go awry,' she says.
5. Frozen veggies may be fresher in winter
Fresh doesn't always mean better.
Topp points out that fresh produce found in Canadian grocery stores during the winter may have less nutritional value than frozen vegetables.
It takes several weeks for produce to be picked and transported from warmer climates. As soon as someone picks a vegetable, its nutrients start to decline, she says.
Frozen vegetables, however, are usually frozen within hours of being picked. It's not a significant nutritional difference, she says, but frozen veggies may be more nutritious in the winter.
The dates on food labels can be confusing. The truth is, they often have nothing to do with food safety. Here's what you really need to know.
You’ve assembled everything you need for the perfect deli sandwich: Genoa salami, prosciutto, some thinly sliced provolone and a crusty baguette. To top it all off, you reach into the fridge for your favorite spicy mustard.
And then you notice it. The “Best By” date on the mustard bottle was 4 months ago!
You might think you’ve got to ditch the mustard and settle for a ho-hum sandwich. But that’s not the case. Here’s what you need to know about food expiration dates:
Frozen Food Expiration Dates Unopened
Use-By, Best if Used By, Best By, Best Before:
These 'use by' and “best” dates are generally found on shelf-stable products such as mustard, mayonnaise, and peanut butter.
The date, which is provided voluntarily by the manufacturer, tells you how long the product is likely to remain at its absolute best quality when unopened. But, as the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service points out, it is not a safety date.
After the 'use by' or “best” date has passed, you may start to notice gradual changes in the unopened product’s texture, color, or flavor. But as long as you’ve been storing the unopened item properly, you can generally consume it beyond this date.
Your best bet for gauging whether an unopened shelf-stable product with this type of date is still of satisfactory quality is to simply smell and examine it first. Always discard foods that have developed an off odor, flavor or appearance. You can also consult the Keep It or Toss It database for optimal food storage times, for both unopened and opened items.
Sell-By:
Most sell-by dates are found on perishables like meat, seafood, poultry and milk. The date is a guide for stores to know how long they can display a particular product.
You should buy the product before the sell-by date expires. But you can still store it at home for some time beyond that date, as long as you follow safe storage procedures (check the Keep It or Toss It database for the shelf life of specific foods).
For instance, milk that has been continuously refrigerated will usually remain drinkable for about one week after the 'sell by' date on the package. Likewise, you can store ground beef in your refrigerator for 1 to 2 days after purchasing it, even if the sell-by date expires during that time.
Expires On:
The only place you’re likely to encounter this type of date is on infant formula and some baby foods, which are the only food products the federal government regulates with regard to dating. You should always use the product before this expiration date has passed.
Packing codes:
These codes, which appear as a series of letters and/or numbers on the package, sometimes indicate the date or time of manufacture. Often, though, they simply appear as a meaningless jumble.
Either way, packing codes help manufacturers and grocers rotate their stock and quickly locate products in the event of a recall. But they are not meant to be interpreted as an indicator of either food safety or quality.
For more information on product dating, visit the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service Web site.
For shelf life informatmation for specific foods, check our Keep It or Toss It database.
Note: This article refers to labeling terminology used in the United States; practices in other countries may differ.