Some shoppers live and die by use by dates, but may not be aware that a number of the most common kitchen products can actually be eaten safely afterwards.
Use by dates relate to safety when eating, whereas best before are about the quality of the food.
But recently, a number of supermarket giants have been scrapping the use by dates on their milk as apart of a wider push to reduce food waste within the industry.
Morrisons warned almost 500 million pints of milk were wasted every year in the UK as Brits tossed them in the bin, when they still could've been drank.
What people may not know is that milk isn’t alone in being safe to consume past its use by date.
Eggs, yoghurt, and even bread can be safe to eat, The Mail reported.
The Food Standards Agency cautions Brits to use “sensory cues” to judge if food is safe to eat - this includes whether it smells, or if any mould can be seen.
M&S, who followed Morrisons in junking their milk’s use by date, encourage Brits to use the sniff test to judge their milk now as well.
But it doesn’t apply to all products with a use-by date as even if it can look and smell fine it can contain bugs that can be dangerous and cause food poisoning.
What other foods could be eaten after the use by date?
Yoghurt
Like with milk, a number of supermarket giants junked their yoghurt use by labels in an attempt to reduce waste.
Co-op, Sainsbury’s and Asda all removed the use by dates from their own brand yoghurt because millions of pots are binned yearly despite still being safe to eat.
Instead, Brits are encouraged to use their judgement with best before dates being used instead.
At the time, the Co-op’s head of food safety Nick Cornwell was reported as saying: “Yoghurt can be safe to eat if stored unopened in a fridge after the date mark shown, so we have made the move to best-before dates to help reduce food waste.
“The acidity of yoghurt acts as a natural defence. We'd encourage shoppers to use their judgement on the quality of their yoghurt if it is past the best-before date.”
Chocolate
Chocolate doesn’t have a use by date, so whilst kind of cheating to include on this list, it is still good to consume long after any best before date.
There’s very little water content in chocolate which helps it stay fresh.
Hotel Chocolat says that even if a bloom, white coating, does appear on your chocolate it’s still safe to consume.
Bread
The key for prolonging the life of your bread is storing it correctly.
Best before dates assume that it’ll be left out on the counter, but this exposes it to higher temperatures which can create more preferable conditions for mould to grow.
But the US State Department say that storing bread in the fridge can extend its shelf life for as long as a couple of weeks.
This may affect the taste, as it causes the water to leave the starch, however to extend it even further store your bread in the freezer which can keep it good for a few months after the expiry date.
Eggs
Eggs are a classic staple in its many varied forms but also another food item that can sometimes be consumed after a use by date.
Nutritionist Keri Gans, RD, author of The Small Change Diet, told Women’s Health: “As long as the egg hasn’t gone bad, there is no reason you can’t still enjoy it,”.
Which means scrambled, poached, boiled or however you may like it, your eggs could still be good to enjoy.
One easy way to test an egg’s age is to use the float test.
Fresh eggs sink whilst bad ones float because the older an egg the more air that has entered its shelf, making it buoyant.
Cheese
Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), a food waste charity, have said that use by dates should be taken off some cheeses, like hard cheese.
They’ve said a best before would be more applicable due to hard cheeses longevity.
If any mould does appear on it, you can just cut it off and enjoy eating the rest of it.