Is expired food safe? The two dates that decide

The two dates: "use by" is not "best before"

Food labels — in the UK, the EU and Switzerland alike — carry one of two very different dates:

"Use by" — the safety date. (On Swiss and EU packaging: "à consommer jusqu'au" / "zu verbrauchen bis.") It goes on fragile products where dangerous bacteria can grow without changing the smell or the look of the food: fresh meat and fish, cold cuts, ready meals, smoked fish, raw milk. Past this date, the producer no longer guarantees the product is safe — even if it seems perfect. A passed use-by date is not a debate: throw it out. That's not excessive caution: the bacteria that actually make you ill (listeria, salmonella) can't be smelled or seen.

"Best before" — the quality date. (Swiss/EU wording: "à consommer de préférence avant" / "mindestens haltbar bis.") It goes on stable products: pasta, rice, canned goods, biscuits, chocolate, coffee, oil, dry goods in general. Past this date, the product may lose flavour, texture or crunch — but it doesn't become dangerous overnight. A passed best-before date is not an order to toss: if the packaging is intact and the look, smell and taste are normal, the product is often still perfectly decent, sometimes months later.

That's the whole answer to "expired — still good?": first, check which date is printed. The word "expired" lumps together two things that have nothing in common — a possible hazard on one side, a slightly soft biscuit on the other. A huge share of the food thrown away every year goes out because of exactly this confusion: best-before products, perfectly edible, binned as if they carried a use-by date.

So, the yogurt? Read the pot, not the forums

The case that probably brought you here. The honest answer: it depends on what's printed on your pot. Depending on the country and the brand, yogurt carries sometimes a use-by date, sometimes a best-before date — both exist on the shelf.

• If your yogurt has a best-before date and stayed sealed in the fridge: bulging lid, mould, or an unusual sour smell = bin; otherwise, normal look and smell are good signs.
• If your yogurt has a use-by date, the safety rule applies like everywhere else: once it's passed, don't keep it — even if it looks fine.

And in both cases, the golden rule below settles any hesitation.

Chart: which date, and what to do once it's passed

Two details that matter: these rules apply to products that are sealed and stored properly (a fridge between 0 and 5 °C / 32–41 °F — a warm fridge shortens everything). And an opened product no longer follows the printed date: open ham is a matter of days, whatever the label says. For item-by-item storage times, see the complete fridge and freezer storage guide; for everything sleeping in the freezer, the freezer black hole article explains why that's almost always a quality question, not a safety one.

Eggs: the float test is a cue — not a free pass

The famous test: put the egg in a tall glass of water. If it lies flat on the bottom, it's fresh; if it stands up, it's ageing; if it clearly floats, it's old (the air pocket grows over time) and it's better not to keep it.

Take it for what it is: a freshness indicator, not a safety guarantee. A sinking egg is not certified salmonella-free — the test detects age, not bacteria. The real reflexes: keep eggs in the fridge, cook them thoroughly once the date is close or passed (no soft-boiled eggs or homemade mayonnaise with eggs on their last legs), and bin without regret any egg that's cracked or smells of anything when opened.

The golden rule: when in doubt, throw it out

It may sound frustrating in an anti-waste article, but it's non-negotiable: if you're genuinely unsure, toss it. No yogurt is worth food poisoning, and "it smells fine" proves nothing on use-by products — the dangerous bacteria are precisely the ones that give no warning.

The real anti-waste lever isn't eating closer to the edge. It's never ending up in that situation again.

The real problem: you find the date too late

Rewind to the opening scene. The "toss it or risk it" dilemma only exists because you discover the date once it's already passed. Three days earlier there was no dilemma: there was a perfectly good yogurt and three days to eat it. The problem isn't your decision in front of the fridge — it's that nobody warned you beforehand.

That's exactly what MyFrigo does: you add your groceries to the inventory in seconds (by voice: "a pack of ham in the fridge"), with their dates. From there:

• The alert arrives BEFORE the date, while there's still time to eat the product — not at sniff-autopsy time.
• Estimated dates are marked with a ≈: when you didn't enter the exact date, the app sets a conservative benchmark and shows you clearly that it's an estimate, instead of leaving you guessing.
• A recipe is suggested with whatever is urgent, so "the ham expires tomorrow" becomes tonight's dinner instead of Thursday's guilt.

MyFrigo will never rule "eat it / toss it" for you — nobody serious can do that from a distance. It does something better: it makes the question rare.

Sources

The use-by / best-before definitions and the caution rules in this article follow the guidance of the UK Food Standards Agency, and match the equivalent Swiss (FSVO/OSAV) and French (ANSES) recommendations: use-by is a safety limit to respect; best-before is a quality marker beyond which a properly stored product can often still be eaten after checking the packaging, look and smell. When in doubt, these agencies recommend not eating the product — a position adopted as-is here.