Many Americans are unfortunately throwing out food without reason. They are under the false impression that their food has gone bad, while the real issue at hand is that they’ve simply taken the expiry date stamp a little too seriously, at least according to recent study.

Americans have been taught that the ”best before” date means that it can no longer be eaten, however this is not actually the case.  Labels are made by food companies by choice, in order to help their customers to know how fresh a product is.  In turn, an entire eighty four percent of consumers actually throw out food, in some cases even if it’s slightly close to the written expiry date.

The study found that besides the fact that consumers have a high misunderstanding of such labels, they also place little trust in them.

When a product says ”best by” it means that it will be at it’s highest quality by, while when a product says ”sell by” it’s more for the store itself to know how long they should keep a product for. But neither of these terms mean that the food should be thrown out.  Safety and freshness are not exactly the same thing.

When it comes to throwing food out, people are best off using their senses, meaning to smell the food and to decide for themselves. Spoilage bacteria generally comes with a smell that you won’t be able to ignore.