Use-by vs best-before: what the date on your food means

By Grozaak · Published on Oct 23, 2026 · 7 min read

A kitchen counter in morning light with a tray of raw chicken, a pot of yoghurt, a tin, a bag of pasta and a jar of rice, each with a blank date sticker, beside an open fridge holding bottles of milk.

The short answer

A use-by date is about safety: don’t eat the food after it, even if it looks and smells fine. A best-before date is about quality: the food is usually still safe afterwards, as long as it has been stored the way the pack says, but it may not be at its best.

The big exception is the United States. On American labels “use by” is a quality date too, and the only date that is about safety is the one on infant formula.

Use by24 OctKeep refrigerated

About safety. Don’t eat it after this date, even if it smells fine.

Best before endOct 2027

About quality. Usually still safe after it, but check it first.

How the two dates look on a UK pack. The same meanings hold in Australia, New Zealand and India. In the US, both kinds of date are about quality, except on infant formula.

The two dates, country by country

Where	The date about safety	The date about quality	Worth knowing
UK	Use by	Best before, or BBE	Food can be eaten, cooked or frozen until midnight on its use-by date.
Australia and New Zealand	Use by	Best before	Shops can’t sell food after its use-by date. Bread may say “baked on” instead.
Canada	Expiration date, only on a few foods such as infant formula	Best before (meilleur avant)	A best-before date only covers the pack while it is unopened.
United States	Only the use-by date on infant formula	Best if used by, use by, sell by, freeze by	Apart from infant formula, federal law doesn’t require a date at all.
India	Use by, or expiry	Best before, which is optional	The date of manufacture or packing has to be printed as well.

Use-by: the date about safety

In the UK, Australia, New Zealand and India, a use-by date means the food may not be safe after it. The UK’s Food Standards Agency calls it the most important date to remember. You will see it on food that goes off quickly, such as meat products and ready-to-eat salads.

Don’t eat, cook or freeze it after the date. In the UK you can eat it until midnight on the date itself.
Smell won’t tell you. Food can look and smell fine after its use-by date and still make you ill, because you can’t see or smell the bacteria that cause food poisoning.
The date only holds if you store the food as the pack says. If it says to keep it in the fridge once opened, the Food Standards Agency means a fridge at 5 °C or below.
Running out of time? Cook it or freeze it before the date. The Food Standards Agency says you can cook food up to midnight on its use-by date, cool it and keep it in the fridge, then eat it within 48 hours or freeze it. Label what you freeze and the day you froze it.

In Australia and New Zealand, food can’t legally be sold after its use-by date. In India, “use by” and “expiry” mean the same date: after it the food may not remain safe, and it must not be sold.

Best-before: the date about quality

Most food carries a best-before date instead. The UK lists frozen food, dried food such as pasta and rice, tinned food and cheese as examples. After the date, the food should still be safe, but it may have lost some flavour, texture or nutrients. Canada’s food inspectors give the example of the vitamin C in juice going down.

Your senses are the test. For best-before food, the Food Standards Agency suggests looking for mould on bread, tasting biscuits or crisps to see if they are stale, and smelling dairy to see if it has soured. This is not a test for use-by food.
If you can’t smell well, ask someone else to check, or stick to the date.
The date assumes the food was stored as the pack says. Kept any other way, it may not last until then.
Shops may sell it after the date. Australia and New Zealand allow it as long as the food is still fit to eat. India’s rules say food past its best-before may still be perfectly safe, but must not be sold if it has become unsafe.

No regulator gives a single number for how long after the best-before date food stays good. It depends on the food and on how it was kept.

On American labels

In the US, federal law doesn’t require a date on food at all, except on infant formula. Dates are added by the maker or the shop, and except on infant formula they are not about safety. The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service explains the common phrases like this:

Best if used by or best if used before: when the food will have the best flavour or quality. It is not a date to buy by, or a safety date. This is the phrase the USDA recommends makers use.
Sell by: tells the shop how long to keep it on display. It is not a safety date.
Use by: the last date recommended for using the food at its best. It is not a safety date, except on infant formula.
Freeze by: when to freeze it to keep it at its best.

If the date passes while the food is at home, the USDA says it should still be safe if it has been handled properly, until it shows signs of spoiling: an off smell, flavour or texture. A change in the colour of meat or poultry is not, on its own, a sign that it has spoiled. Don’t buy or use infant formula after its use-by date.

So a “use by” on a pack of meat in a US shop and one on a pack in a UK shop don’t mean the same thing. Go by the rules of the country whose label it is.

In Canada

A Canadian best-before date says how long an unopened food, stored properly, keeps its freshness, taste and nutritional value. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says it is not a sign of safety, either before or after the date, and you can buy and eat food after it.

It only covers the sealed pack. Once a food is opened, how long it keeps may change.
Only food that keeps for 90 days or less needs one. Most tinned food, dry pasta and frozen food don’t, though some makers add one anyway. Fresh fruit and vegetables don’t need one either.
An expiration date is different, and strict. Only infant formula, meal replacements, nutritional supplements, formulated liquid diets, very low-energy diet foods and human milk fortifiers carry one. Don’t buy, sell or eat food past its expiration date; throw it away.
Food packed in the shop may carry a “packaged on” date instead, with a note of how long it keeps.

How to read a Canadian date

The year comes first if it is printed at all, then a two-letter month, then the day. So “17 JA 30” is 30 January 2017.

Best before17 JA 30Meilleur avant

17: The year, 2017. It comes first, and may be left out.
JA: The month, January, as two letters.
30: The day of the month.

The month codes: JA, FE, MR, AL, MA, JN, JL, AU, SE, OC, NO, DE, for January to December.

In Australia and New Zealand

Use-by: don’t eat food after it, and shops can’t legally sell it after it.
Best-before: most food has one. You can still eat it for a while afterwards, and shops can sell it as long as it is fit to eat.
Bread that keeps for less than seven days can be labelled “baked on” or “baked for” instead.
Food that keeps for two years or more, such as some tinned food, doesn’t need a best-before date.
Storage instructions have to be on the label when the date depends on them, for example “keep refrigerated”.

In India

Under the labelling rules of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI):

Every pack shows two dates: the date it was made or packed, and a “use by” or “expiry” date. A best-before date can be added as well.
Use by, or expiry: after it the food may not remain safe, and it must not be sold.
Best before: the end of the time the food stays at its full quality. After it the food may still be perfectly safe, though its quality may have dropped.
How it is printed: day, month and year for food that keeps up to three months, and usually just the month and year for food that keeps longer.
No expiry date is needed on fresh fruit and vegetables that haven’t been peeled or cut, wine and other drinks of 10% alcohol or more, vinegar, boiled sweets, solid sugars and chewing gum.

Once the pack is open

The printed date is for the pack as it was sold. Canada’s rules say so outright: a best-before date applies to unopened food only. Many packs say how long they keep once opened, such as “once opened, keep refrigerated and use within three days”. When a pack says that, go by it.

Freezing

Freezing is a pause button. Bacteria can’t grow in frozen food. The longer it is frozen, the more its texture may suffer, but not its safety.
Freeze use-by food on or before its date, never after.
Once it has defrosted, the pause is over. Defrost only what you need, and cook it within 24 hours until it is steaming hot.

That is the UK Food Standards Agency’s advice. Always check the pack says the food can be frozen.

How Grozaak uses the two dates

When you add a pack, you say which date it carries, use by or best before, and Grozaak shows it in those words.
Everything is sorted by its date, so what expires first is at the top, and a reminder comes before the date, not after.
When a date passes, Grozaak asks what happened to the pack. It says “past its use-by date” in red, and “past best before” in amber as a warning.
Food with no date on it, such as loose vegetables, gets an estimate from the kind of food it is. Change it whenever you know better.

This guide sums up what each country’s food regulator says. If you are unsure about a particular food, follow its label, and your local food-safety agency’s advice.