{"id":2514,"date":"2014-10-31T10:35:23","date_gmt":"2014-10-31T14:35:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hnetalk.com\/Member\/?p=2514"},"modified":"2014-10-31T10:35:23","modified_gmt":"2014-10-31T14:35:23","slug":"expiration-dates-should-you-pay-attention-1031","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/expiration-dates-should-you-pay-attention-1031\/","title":{"rendered":"Expiration Dates: Should You Pay Attention?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"HNE_DrLaurie_728X90\"My father used to say “Everything has to have a date on it.”\u00a0 \"6466-000111\"<\/a>The dates on food labels can be confusing. The truth is, they often have nothing to do with food safety!<\/p>\n

Here’s what you really need to know:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u2022 Use-By, Best if Used By, Best By, Best Before: These “use by” and \u201cbest\u201d dates are generally found on shelf-stable products such as mustard, mayonnaise, and peanut butter.<\/p>\n

\u2022 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.<\/p>\n

\u2022 After the “use by” or \u201cbest\u201d date has passed, you may start to notice gradual changes in the unopened product\u2019s texture, color, or flavor. But as long as you\u2019ve been storing the unopened item properly, you can generally consume it beyond this date.<\/p>\n

\u2022 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.<\/p>\n

I hope you have enjoyed this week about food safety.\u00a0 Don’t wait for a power outage to clean out your refrigerator!<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t forget to take my quick weekly quiz and claim your reward. Act now before they are all gone!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"weeklyQuiz\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Please read our\u00a0Disclaimer<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My father used to say “Everything has to have a date on it.”\u00a0 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: \u2022 Use-By, Best if Used By, Best By, Best Before: These “use by” and \u201cbest\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":2532,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[164],"class_list":["post-2514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drlaurie","tag-dr-laurie-mexpiration-dates-should-you-pay-attention"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/EXPIRATION-DATE-e1414004651842.jpg?fit=400%2C498&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6ZZGa-Ey","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}