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California bans sell-by dates

foodandwine.com

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Re: California bans sell-by dates

#71

Post by vel0city »

sdo72 wrote: post #63

I find food in the US contains too much toxin that harms the body. They have a lot of synthetic chemicals and preservatives. Many of which have very bad long term damages to the body. Even with these labels, sometimes it doesn't really tell the whole story about the ingredients. Most of the food that sits on the shelf for weeks shouldn't be consumed.

> Most of the food that sits on the shelf for weeks shouldn't be consumed.

Salt? Flour? Oil? Oats? Rice? Garlic? Black pepper? Most ground spices? Nuts? Beans? Honey? Vinegar? Quinoa? All of these can reasonably sit on a shelf for weeks. I guess none of these are safe to be consumed, all just "toxins".

Re: California bans sell-by dates

#72

Post by Maximus9000 »

brightball wrote: post #45
tivert wrote: post #41

> To adhere with the requisite language outlined, any food products with a date label — with the exception of infant formula, eggs, beer, and malt beverages — must state “Best if Used By” to indicate peak quality, and “Use By” to designate food safety. "Use by" is dumb, it's too close to "Best if Used By." If there's a safety issue, the term should be "expires", "expires on", or something like that.

I remember seeing a sell by date on salt. It was at that moment that I started questioning the process.

I've seen it on vinegar too.

Re: California bans sell-by dates

#73

Post by ghaff »

amanaplanacanal wrote: post #5
lesuorac wrote: post #2

> To adhere with the requisite language outlined, any food products with a date label — with the exception of infant formula, eggs, beer, and malt beverages — must state “Best if Used By” to indicate peak quality, and “Use By” to designate food safety. I mean, personally a big fan. I recently started seeing "Packed on " and like wtf does that even mean. Was the corn also picked on that date? Like these dates have bee…

For me the one exception would be coffee. I'd much rather see a "roasted" date than some "best if used by" date.

There’s frankly a huge variation between the OMG it was roasted two weeks ago and the OK it’s only been a few months crowd.

Re: California bans sell-by dates

#74

Post by vel0city »

bilekas wrote: post #69
torgoguys wrote: post #67

> To adhere with the requisite language outlined, any food products with a date label — with the exception of infant formula, eggs, beer, and malt beverages — must state “Best if Used By” to indicate peak quality, and “Use By” to designate food safety. Infant formula is required federally, so OK. Eggs are an oddly specific one, but I guess I can see it (although I'd wonder why some other products like milk, or meat m…

I'm actually super curious about that too, as far as I know pathogens cant live in beer, so I don't know how it can go bad. I wonder though if local brewery's or more artigianale brewing processes are different and maybe could be a bit riskier ?

> pathogens cant live in beer

Depending on the beer there might be live yeasts in it.

Beers can still go bad. Not always from a "not safe to consume" but often at least a "not going to taste very good anymore" kind of thing. Beers will end up oxidizing, the stuff in the beer will degrade over time, etc. Not all beers age well, some need to be had within a certain period of freshness.

Generally I prefer a "born-on" date for beer.

Re: California bans sell-by dates

#75

Post by manwe150 »

torgoguys wrote: post #67

> To adhere with the requisite language outlined, any food products with a date label — with the exception of infant formula, eggs, beer, and malt beverages — must state “Best if Used By” to indicate peak quality, and “Use By” to designate food safety. Infant formula is required federally, so OK. Eggs are an oddly specific one, but I guess I can see it (although I'd wonder why some other products like milk, or meat m…

The text of the law seems to be specific that the beer exemption (and other alcohol) is about a permission to put the vintage (year month, etc), since alcohol are expected to change over time even after bottling (some better some worse) so consumers would desire that information even though it does not conform to the normal "use by" or "best by" relevant to other products (any other placement or use of a date on a label being what is made illegal by the law)

Re: California bans sell-by dates

#76

Post by crowcroft »

mikro2nd wrote: post #68
torgoguys wrote: post #67

> To adhere with the requisite language outlined, any food products with a date label — with the exception of infant formula, eggs, beer, and malt beverages — must state “Best if Used By” to indicate peak quality, and “Use By” to designate food safety. Infant formula is required federally, so OK. Eggs are an oddly specific one, but I guess I can see it (although I'd wonder why some other products like milk, or meat m…

Beer certainly is an odd one! Some (craft) craft beers will age gracefully -- improving, even -- for years . Industrial lagers... not so much . I scored once with an imported (Belgian) craft beer at the local supermarket, heavily marked down price because the sell-by date was approaching. Some days later, marked down by half again because the date had passed. Needless to say, I bought all I could carry.

This is a tricky one, because at some point you need to think about the integrity of the product's packaging, and how well it's been stored.

Craft beer *in a can* will not age gracefully. Even in a bottle, while it will probably be fine, how much light exposure are the bottle getting, have they been left out in the sun at any point etc.

Best before dates, hard expiry dates (if required), and ideally including a packaged on date would be a pretty ideal amount of information.

Re: California bans sell-by dates

#77

Post by idunnoman1222 »

mikro2nd wrote: post #68
torgoguys wrote: post #67

> To adhere with the requisite language outlined, any food products with a date label — with the exception of infant formula, eggs, beer, and malt beverages — must state “Best if Used By” to indicate peak quality, and “Use By” to designate food safety. Infant formula is required federally, so OK. Eggs are an oddly specific one, but I guess I can see it (although I'd wonder why some other products like milk, or meat m…

Beer certainly is an odd one! Some (craft) craft beers will age gracefully -- improving, even -- for years . Industrial lagers... not so much . I scored once with an imported (Belgian) craft beer at the local supermarket, heavily marked down price because the sell-by date was approaching. Some days later, marked down by half again because the date had passed. Needless to say, I bought all I could carry.

Come on it has nothing to do with the industrial scale at which the beer is created it has to do with which ingredients malt, hops, etc.

Re: California bans sell-by dates

#78

Post by bilekas »

vel0city wrote: post #74
bilekas wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm actually super curious about that too, as far as I know pathogens cant live in beer, so I don't know how it can go bad. I wonder though if local brewery's or more artigianale brewing processes are different and maybe could be a bit riskier ?

> pathogens cant live in beer Depending on the beer there might be live yeasts in it. Beers can still go bad. Not always from a "not safe to consume" but often at least a "not going to taste very good anymore" kind of thing. Beers will end up oxidizing, the stuff in the beer will degrade over time, etc. Not all beers age well, some need to be had within a certain period of freshness. Generally I prefer a "born-on" da…

A born date is a nice idea actually, they do it for wines so it would transfer easily. When you say beeds end up oxidizing, could this kind of activity cause maybe a reaction to say an aluminium can for example ?

Re: California bans sell-by dates

#79

Post by psunavy03 »

torgoguys wrote: post #67

> To adhere with the requisite language outlined, any food products with a date label — with the exception of infant formula, eggs, beer, and malt beverages — must state “Best if Used By” to indicate peak quality, and “Use By” to designate food safety. Infant formula is required federally, so OK. Eggs are an oddly specific one, but I guess I can see it (although I'd wonder why some other products like milk, or meat m…

Beer is pasteurized or else full of live yeast cultures. It doesn't go "bad" per se in the sense that it will hurt you, but some beers taste bad beyond a certain point. Hoppy beers lose flavor in ~90 days or so after bottling. Mass-market beers "skunk" if they are exposed to light and the UV causes certain compounds to break down. Strong unpasteurized malty beers like porters and stouts can age for literally years in a cool dark place, and it smooths the flavors out.

Re: California bans sell-by dates

#80

Post by psunavy03 »

crowcroft wrote: post #76
mikro2nd wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Beer certainly is an odd one! Some (craft) craft beers will age gracefully -- improving, even -- for years . Industrial lagers... not so much . I scored once with an imported (Belgian) craft beer at the local supermarket, heavily marked down price because the sell-by date was approaching. Some days later, marked down by half again because the date had passed. Needless to say, I bought all I could carry.

This is a tricky one, because at some point you need to think about the integrity of the product's packaging, and how well it's been stored. Craft beer *in a can* will not age gracefully. Even in a bottle, while it will probably be fine, how much light exposure are the bottle getting, have they been left out in the sun at any point etc. Best before dates, hard expiry dates (if required), and ideally including a packa…

It depends on the beer type as well. Malty strong beers age well. Hoppy beers don't because the compounds are volatile. Malty beers benefit in flavor from continued breakdown of their chemical compounds, hoppy beers don't.
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