The Date of Expiry It is set up to the time when a food can be safely consumed, provided the manufacturer’s directions for shelf life and use are followed. Meanwhile, the ‘best before’ label is established on a food up to the limit in which its quality is preserved. It can be consumed later but it may lose characteristics such as taste, smell or texture, according to the Spanish Agency for Consumption, Food Safety and Nutrition (AECOSAN).
Specifically, the expiration date It is indicated in very perishable products and with microbiological risk such as: raw and fresh meat and fish, which last a few days and where there may be pathogenic bacteria. Once the expiration date has passed, the product should not be consumed, since there are risks that it is in poor condition, spoiled and can even be dangerous due to the presence of pathogenic bacteria, according to the OCU.
The best before date applies to products that are much more durable and are stable. Once this date has passed, they may have lost part of their properties, such as having a somewhat rancid flavor, having less or a strange aroma, changing texture or color, for example, but there is no microbiological risk.
Products that have passed their expiration date cannot be consumed. What can be done if we see that the expiration date is coming and we are not going to eat them is to freeze them. We can do it with meat, fish, even with smoked salmon, or cooked ham. Of course, when defrosting these products they must be consumed in less than 24 hours.
what can be consumed
The products that can be consumed even if the expiration date has passed are: yogurts, “nothing happens, it can increase its acidity, but it is not dangerous because it is pasteurized milk”; the cookies and buns that have passed the best before date even if they are drier; the salty snacks; dry pasta; grocery products; vacuum sausages or in modified atmospheres, except in some cases, such as turkey or cooked ham because it contains water; soft drinks and alcoholic.
“Nothing happens if the expiration is exceeded in a few days or a monthas long as they are tried and have a good flavor”, emphasizes the OCU. Of course, in the case of pre-cooked prepared dishes, if they are not going to be consumed and their expiration date is approaching, they also admit freezing. This is the case of lasagna or pizzas, but not those that contain vegetables, since their texture is greatly spoiled.Once defrosted, these products must be consumed immediately.
How the expiration date is set
The expiration date of a product is fixed from the degradation of the same. So how does product degradation occur? Manuela Liberi, a chemist at the clinical equipment company Bruker Corporation, explains in an interview with Infosalus that the degradation of food is mainly due to biological and physical reasons. Specifically, the biological ones respond to microorganisms and enzymes, while the chemical ones respond to the presence of oxygen, heat, radiation, water and impurities.
However, he stresses that today the rules on food hygiene are “so strict” that the life of a product is usually reduced by the sole action of oxidation. For this reason, he affirms, the food industry is working against the clock on how to combat these oxidation mechanisms.
Regarding how the expiration date of a product is set, Liberi indicates that there are several tests for it. “In all of them, the life of a food is taken into account. This is determined by the balance of pro-oxidant factors, such as heat, metal impurities, oxygen, and the endogenous antioxidant properties of the product, such as vitamins, that can help add antioxidant additives during production, so the more antioxidants there are in the product, the longer its ‘life’ will be,” he adds.
In this sense, from the Alimentum Foundation they specify that the minimum durability date of a product is “the one until which the food product maintains its specific properties under appropriate conservation conditions”.
As they remember, the legislation does not determine the expiration date for each type of product, if not that the manufacturers themselves have to do it. Here they specify that the best-before or expiration date basically depends on the product (refrigerated, frozen product, for example) and its treatment (pasteurization, sterilization, deep-freezing, or dehydration, among other processes).
Furthermore, they emphasize that In Spain, in order to determine the useful life of products, Regulation 2073/200578 is used on microbiological criteria applicable to food products. Likewise, in Spanish legislation, decree 1334/1999 (article 11) establishes the criteria to be met to mark the expiration dates or preferential consumption of food.