Expiration Date, If Any: Fill & Download for Free

Absolutely.This need to find a soulmate is very toxic. It needs to go.There’s a spirit of the unknown to the duration of any relationship. You are both accountable to each other. Even if you think it is a short term deal, the relationship isn’t a packaged food, you have the option to rip the expiration date off and keep going.Conversely, some of the worst experiences people have in relationships seem to occur when neither party recognizes the expiration date. It’s that ugly tail end that often generates all those bad memories.Accept that everything in life is finite.Take as much of the good from these experiences as you can. You will grow and build a book of good memories to look back upon.Out with the bad, in with the good.

Yale,Have you ever worked in a deli?Prepackaged deli meat / cheese(s) are fresher and dated more accurately, than is the item(s) in the glass display case(s).There are 5 dates on deli meats:The date packaged, on pre packaged deli meat(s) / cheese(s).The best by or best used by date on prepackaged deli meats / cheese(s).The expiration date on the original packaging, which you will never see.The 7 day expiration date placed on the large plastic bag the deli meat is placed into at the time of the first slice. ( 21 days for salamis and cheeses).The date on the small bag at purchase.Don't assume, the dates are the same.Question?How do you know what the expiration date is on the meat at the deli counter?I work in a meat department and currently hold a Servsafe food sanitation license from the State of Illinois..At times the store manager has asked me to fill in, to help out in the deli department.Sometimes this is for a few hours. Sometimes this is for a few days / weeks at a time.Two years ago, I was offered a deli management job, starting at $65,000.00 a year.Frankly, at the time I refused, as there were 2 problem associates the store chooses to do nothing about.90% of the problems in out deli are created by these two associates…When new it is good for 5 years. I have 3 years left on my license.Now to the point, the last time I was asked to help out in the deli, I personally threw out 9 deli meats for being expired.Do not mistake the expiration date on the meats in the case that are not yet sliced with the date on the package you buy after it is sliced.It's not the same.Many of you are unwittingly buying expired meat at the deli counter.Meat & cheese slicers are supposed to be cleaned every 4 hours.Most delis go from 7am to 8 or 9pm, without cleaning the slicers, all day long.People have the same misconception, of the glass case, in the deli / meat department(s).What is fresher, the glass case or the prepackaged meat / seafood?The pre-packaged, is always fresher.I never, ever, buy from the glass case(s) in any supermarket (especially at Walmart).I personally, remove the meat(s) and fish each night and it is put back in the next morning. So how many days, does it sit in there???????????????????????????Deli meat is left in the case from the day of first cut until it is used up or it expires.Many times, expiration dates are not checked, as mentioned above.People have a misconception, the meat / fish in the glass case, is fresh each day.Not so. It is not.I have witnessed, conversations at the meat counter between customers, about just this.Your perception, is not our reality.But the customer says, the ribs look better, in the glass case versus the plastic package from Hormel…The plastic package from Hormel is what's called a Cryo Pack. Shelf life 14 days.The unpackaged Hormel ribs in the glass case look better because of case lighting and the fact that air can now get to the ribs and they begin to turn color… Shelf life 4 days…Never assume the glass case has been cut fresh daily, unless you physically see it done.There are no dates on meat or seafood, in the glass display case.When shrimp is old it get slimy.The next day it is spoiled and will smell bad after cooking.Again, only buy packaged meats and bags of frozen shrimp.Frozen bags of shrimp have a 180 day shelf life. Thawing / thawed shrimp has 4 to 5 days…Always check the date on the individual package, prior to purchase.Another example.A new butcher was hired.He cut the entire meat counter fresh each day, like many customers believe happens, every morning.The result, meat sales tripled and he was promoted to manager in training.Customers are not stupid.They can see (and smell) the difference.Fresh meat / recently cut, is bright red.As it ages in a glass case, it turns dull red then greyish black.Back to prepackaged deli meats.Again, they are labeled with expiration dates, when packaged.Deli meats at the counter are not.Let the buyer beware.

During my time working in both management and part time capacities at a large supermarket, I can tell you that the evolution of what happens with food past its sell by date has been pretty fascinating. There is a distinction to note that there are generally several dates associated with food. There is a sell by date, a best by date and an expiration date.The short answer to your question is, yes, a lot of food gets thrown out.The long answer is that most supermarkets do a very good job of minimizing this waste. Almost all departments, especially ones with perishable items, order to sell out and should come very close to running out before their next order arrives. Think about that the next time your supermarket is out of fresh wild salmon. Would they really bring in one extra twenty pound case just to sell you an eight ounce fillet at 8PM the night before fresh fish arrives? Depends on the market and how aggressively the store wants to capture sales, but mostly, no.The blanket rule for food past its expiration date is this, if it is unsafe in any way, shape or form, it gets thrown out. They find a way to use almost everything else.Produce - Fruits and vegetables don't come with clear expiration dates. I will tell you that you will probably never see a banana that's turning brown on the racks in the produce department. If some produce isn't sell-able it usually gets shopped around the store. A department that handles any type of prepared foods will use these items to make items for hot bars, salad bars, soups, etc. The same goes for meat and seafood that is past its sell by date but still within its best by date.Composting seems like the natural answer for all the other produce that can't be used. This issue has been explored and explored at our supermarket and there are two major roadblocks to seeing it in action.Storage - Most farms are generally farther away from urbanized (or suburbanized) stores. Because produce deteriorates rather quickly farms would have to pick up compostable produce on a daily basis. Storage at the market is not an option because a large, rotting pile of fruit would attract all sorts of unwanted pests to the store. Daily pickup is difficult and would the extra monetary and green cost of the freight and labor make up for the produce that would be picked up? The logistics of the operation are more involved than one might initially think.Recalls - Unfortunately, recalls due to contaminated fruits and vegetables do happen. Many of them happen after the produce has been in the store for some time. If the store composts melons, and those same melons are recalled two days later due to a possible salmonella contamination, then you have potentially deadly compost making its way around your local farms. I am neither an expert in food-borne illness nor composting, so I don't know if there is any validity to this concern, but I do know it sounds scary. And that's enough to put the issue on the back burner.Bakery - Almost all old baked goods get donated to the local food bank which disperses it to not for profit agencies in the area. Every morning a big shopping cart of old muffins, donuts and bread makes it way to the back dock and every morning at 10AM a van rolls around and picks it up.Meat and Seafood - Lately, within the past couple of months, they've been testing out freezing meats that have just passed sell by date and donating these to the local soup kitchens. Again, this is still in its infancy and some issues have arisen that have taken the logistics of this back to the drawing board. The main issue becomes, and always comes back too, safety. Just because a product makes it to its final consumer in a frozen state doesn't mean its 100% safe. What happened to the product in the mean time? Traceability is of paramount importance until it gets to the store, but the cost involved with continuing that traceability until it reaches donations is economically unfeasible.Grocery and Dairy - Unfortunately, for the same reasons Meat and Seafood can't be donated, many refrigerated, expired dairy products don't make the list. The good news is that very few items get thrown out. Longer shelf lives, higher demand and tight orders ensures that they only dairy products that really get thrown out are the damaged ones that aren't safe for consumption anyways.Grocery items are given to food banks. I'm sure some smaller markets donate directly. At our store, everything expired is packed and freighted to headquarters and they distribute the goods evenly among the communities that our supermarket are located in. The extra freight may seem wasteful but I am assuming they record their donations for tax deduction purposes.I've had the good fortune to spend some time volunteering at food banks. They have different expiration dates for products which I assume are regulated by some sort of government agency. For example, (I'm just using an arbitrary example, I don't remember the exact dates and figures) canned beans may be ok for two years past the date on the can whereas boxed pasta is good for six months past the date on the box. The majority of my volunteer time at the food banks was spent sorting through the mountains of canned goods and checking expiration dates to see what was still deemed safe and what wasn't.So basically, if it's safe it gets donated. If it's not, it gets thrown out. Definitely some food for thought.