Each year on Easter, millions of Australians stock up on more chocolate treats than they can eat.
But after the holiday, eggs and bunnies quickly disappear.
In fact, it might come as a surprise, but all Cadbury Easter products actually have the same expiration date — June 1.
A Cadbury spokesperson said Easter chocolates had their best before dates in June to ensure they weren't being kept by retailers until the following season.
"While some of our chocolate could potentially last for next Easter, these recommended best before dates ensure any unsold eggs and bunnies aren't offered to consumers the following season," a spokesperson said.
"We're committed to providing Cadbury lovers with fresh, high-quality chocolate all year round."
It's not a policy employed by all chocolate companies.
A spokesperson for Lindt & Sprüngli said it gave longer best before dates to its chocolates.
They also said that while the best before dates for their Easter products were dated around a similar time, they were not identical.
"We test each product extensively and determine the best before date according to the premium quality standards our products have to meet," the spokesperson said.
"Nevertheless, [the best before dates] are certainly longer than two months after Easter," they said.
The ABC contacted a number of other chocolate companies selling Easter products in Australia which declined to comment.
Melbourne business owner Grant Miles, who runs a food discount store, noticed Cadbury's Easter expiry dates a few years ago.
His shop sells products close to, or just past their best before date, and he said he felt premature best before dates contributed to food waste.
"There are still many, many consumers who do take [best before dates] as gospel," he said.
Mr Miles said shortening the best before date more than needed increased the chance the food would be thrown out sooner.
So what are the rules?
In Australia, there are two types of food date labels: best before dates and use-by dates.
While both are there to help consumers make a decision on whether to eat or drink something, experts say only use-by dates need to be followed strictly.
Food Standards Australia and New Zealand outlines use-by dates as indicating when a food is no longer safe to eat, whereas best before dates are given to food that may be able to be safely eaten for a while.
Foods can legally be sold after their best before date but not after the use-by.
Cadbury's Easter products are all best before, meaning they can be consumed after the date as long as the chocolate has not spoiled.
Food Legal co-principal Jenny Awad said when companies pick expiry dates, there are no rules preventing suppliers from shortening best before dates of their products.
"Each supplier is responsible for choosing the appropriate best before date or use-by date for their product," she said.
"There is no prescribed restriction preventing a supplier from shortening the use-by or best before date of a food product and doing so would be a commercial decision for the supplier."
What about household food waste?
When it comes to household food waste, one of the main contributors is food going off before it is consumed.
Simon Lockrey from the Fight Food Waste Cooperative Research Centre said understanding what different food expiries meant was key to reducing waste.
The centre estimates that 25 per cent of the food Australia produces is thrown away, which is worth about $19.2 billion each year.
Dr Lockrey said confusion around best before and use-by labels was also a key contributor to food waste.
"There's a lot of confusion with consumers on the difference between those dates and they are often conflated as meaning the same thing," Dr Lockrey said.
He said the UK had moved towards removing many best before dates to reduce confusion and ensure only foods that are truly unsafe to eat have an expiry date.
When it comes to overbuying food around seasonal celebrations such as Easter, Dr Lockrey said people should consider how they can use the leftover food in other recipes.
So I can still eat my chocolate eggs and other best before foods?
Food Standards Australia and New Zealand guidelines say food may be sold after its best before date provided it's "fit for human consumption".
But the guidelines warn food consumed after its best before date "should be safe but it may have lost some quality".
Food safety expert Said Ajlouni said there are many foods that can be eaten past the best before dates, including chocolate.
But he said people need to be vigilant and understand the risks involved with the type of food they are eating.
Generally speaking, foods with low water content, like chocolate, can last longer than might be expected.
"If there is no smell, no changes in texture, especially when we talk about semi-solid food, it will be safe to eat," he said.
"If it is food that needs to be cooked, it will be safe because during cooking, if there is any contamination, the heat treatment can destroy this microorganism.
"But if you are in doubt, you better leave it out because you know microorganisms sometimes may be present but they don't show any sign of spoilers."
When it comes to chocolate, he said it should be fine to eat unless "bloom", a white coating on chocolate that can be a sign of the start of spoilage, is present.
"If they open a chocolate bar, for example, and don't see any sign of spoilage, even if it expired a few days before, in my view, from a safety perspective, it should be safe to eat," Dr Ajlouni.
