SCADOUse by vs best before: what the dates really mean
Last updated: 10 June 2026
A "use by" date is about safety - never eat a food after it. A "best before" date is about quality - the food is usually still fine afterwards if it was stored correctly and the pack is undamaged. Telling the two apart is the single biggest way to throw away less food without taking risks.
"Use by" means safety
A use-by date is a safety date. The UK Food Standards Agency is blunt about it: never eat food after its use-by date, even if it looks and smells fine, because the bacteria that cause food poisoning cannot be seen or smelled. The "sniff test" does not work here.
Use-by dates appear on highly perishable foods - fresh and minced meat, poultry, fish, fresh milk and soft cheeses, fresh pasta, ready-to-eat salads. You can eat the food up to midnight on the date shown, but not after, unless you cooked or froze it in time. The date is only valid if you followed the storage instructions, such as "keep refrigerated".
"Best before" means quality
A best-before date - in Italy the "termine minimo di conservazione" - is about quality, not safety. After it, food is generally still safe to eat if the pack is unopened, undamaged and was stored as directed; it may simply have lost some flavour, texture or aroma.
You will find best-before dates on longer-life foods: dried pasta, rice and pulses, tinned and frozen foods, honey, sugar, oils and biscuits. For these, your senses are a reasonable guide to quality - though damaged packaging or poor storage can still make them unappetising.
Why the difference matters for waste
Confusing the two labels is a major cause of avoidable waste. The European Commission estimates that up to 10% of the food wasted in the EU each year is linked to date marking and people misreading "use by" versus "best before".
In practice that means perfectly good "best before" food gets binned the day after its date, while genuinely risky "use by" food is sometimes kept too long. Reading the label correctly fixes both.
Once you open the pack
The printed date assumes the package is unopened. As soon as you open it, the "once opened, use within X days" instruction takes over - it is usually shorter than the original date. If you want the detail, see our guide on how long food lasts after opening.
A note on safety
This is general information, not food-safety advice. Always follow the printed use-by date and the manufacturer guidance; vulnerable people (pregnant women, infants, older adults, anyone immunocompromised) should be especially strict. When in doubt, throw it out. SCADO is an organizational aid - it never decides whether a food is safe to eat.
SCADO lets you mark each item as "use by" or "best before", so safety dates are treated as hard deadlines and quality dates as softer reminders - and sorts everything by what needs using first. Privately, on your device. SCADO ->