Salmonella Blog

Maeghan Killeen For the State Journal
May 31, 2005

Your milk's "sell-by" date was yesterday, your ground chuck says "use by" today and your canned vegetables say "best if used by" last Thanksgiving. So, are your days numbered if you grill a burger, heat the veggies and pour a glass of milk today?

We'll get back to you on that, but first a word about the confusing world of product dating.

Except for a few items, neither the government nor industry regulates dates on food products. That means it's up to the manufacturers and the grocery stores to create the dates and follow them.

"There is no uniform or universally accepted system used for food dating in the United States. Although dating of some foods is required by more than 20 states, there are areas of the country where almost no food is dated," according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

In Wisconsin, food product dating is required for three items:

- Infant formula is regulated because it's for a very vulnerable population and is their only source of nutrition. The date on the formula container is an expiration date, which means it should be used or discarded by that date and would be illegal to sell after that date.

- Smoked fish is not cooked before being eaten, so it's regulated to prevent bacteria growth. As for the infant formula, the date is an expiration date, so it shouldn't be sold or consumed after that date.

- Eggs have a packing date, but the date consumers see can be one of several choices - an expiration date, a sell-by date (no more than 30 days after packed), a use-by date or best-if-used-by date.

Donna Gilson, a spokeswoman for the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, said no other foods are required to list dates. "Sell-by dates are purely voluntary."

Consumers, she said, question why dating isn't required on more foods, such as meats. "What we do is regulate the critical points in the process where things are most likely to become contaminated and make sure that the meat is handled properly all along the way," she explained.

She contrasts contaminants that can cause severe illness and death with spoilage bacteria might just make food taste bad. "The pathogens that we hear about in the news - E. coli, salmonella, things that cause food-borne illness in people - when those show up, there's been contamination somewhere along the way," Gilson said. "But there's also spoilage bacteria. Even if food was handled properly, at some point it's going to spoil."

Gilson said the government does inspections of grocery stores on a complaint-driven process, so if consumers are seeing a lot of food with expired dates at a particular store, they should contact the DATCP Division of Food Safety at 224-4700 or by e-mail at food@datcp.state.wi.us.

However, most retailers want to avoid unhappy customers, so many grocery stores keep the shelves clear of outdated food. Eric Wichmann, assistant store manager of the Hilldale Sentry store at 726 Midvale Blvd., said the store has checks in place for dates on every item on the shelves. The dates of every product in the dairy department and other perishable departments are checked every day. Other sections of the store are reset every other week and packaging dates are checked during these resets. All items throughout the store are checked when they are restocked, and also on a quarterly basis throughout the year. In addition, a date-checking team sweeps through the entire store once a year.

Still, even if you check the date on the food you purchase, Gilson said the food might not be safe.

"You can buy the nicest, freshest food product on the shelf," Gilson said. "But if you don't take care of it at home, it's not going to be safe."

Barbara Ingham, assistant professor of food science with UW-Extension, said most food safety problems occur at home. "It is my experience that consumers most often find themselves having to consider product dates not at the grocery store, but at home," she said.

Ingham recommends rotating pantry stock so older items are used first, and not storing opened items in the refrigerator longer than intended. For longer storage, she adds, freeze it (0 degrees Fahrenheit or lower), because then it doesn't matter if the date expires because foods kept frozen continuously are safe, although the quality may suffer.

"Opened items placed in the refrigerator should be used within a few days or weeks," Ingham said. "Most foods will not benefit from being opened and stored in the refrigerator for months or years."

Which brings us back to the milk-meat-canned veggies question: Your dinner might not be top quality but isn't going to kill you, assuming all the items were handled well during processing, as well as before and after you bought it - meaning after you purchased the ground chuck and milk, you didn't leave it in a hot car while you went to rent a video or on the kitchen counter while you watched a music awards show.

Properly canned vegetables will keep "forever," Gilson said, adding, "It's a quality issue. It's not a safety issue. They will get unappetizing in appearance and maybe in taste."

If you're not sure about the milk, Gilson said, "You can tell by the smell." That's a preferable test to actually sipping possibly spoiled milk. "Usually you can go a couple of days beyond the expiration date, especially with milk in cardboard cartons instead of plastic jugs."

Regarding the ground chuck, Gilson explains that if you had frozen it after your purchase, "You bought yourself some time." Otherwise, cook it today or toss it out. She would rather waste a couple of dollars than worry about food past a use-by date.

Bottom line: When in doubt, throw it out.