RELATED: These 4 Beloved Foods Are Disappearing From Grocery Shelves, Experts Warn. RELATED: This Ingredient in More Than 1,250 Foods May Not Be Safe, New Study Says. Your food labels may also include a “Best If Used By” date, which means that the food quality can deteriorate after that date. According to the study, only 46.2 percent of respondents correctly identified the specific meaning of the “Best If Used By” date, even though 92.1 percent felt sure they knew what it meant. “Despite using the labels frequently, many people didn’t understand the labels fully,” study co-author Catherine Turvey, MPH, of the department of exercise and nutrition sciences at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., explained in a statement. RELATED: For more food safety news, sign up for our daily newsletter. Researchers note that there is a clear difference between the “Use By” date and “Best If Used By” date. If a product is past the “Use By” date, you should throw it away. However, if it is past the “Best If Used By” date, you can use your senses and best judgment to determine if it’s still good to eat, potentially preventing unnecessary food waste. “You can tell that there’s a change in your food because it smells sort of different or say it’s chips—it doesn’t have that crunch that you’re looking for,” Turvey said. “Then you can make a decision that the quality of the food has gone down enough that the food is no longer enjoyable.” Turvey said that through their study, the researchers found that people continued to incorrectly assess the labels even after viewing educational messages. Despite respondents learning the differences between the two labels, 37 percent still did not understand the specific meaning of “Best If Used By” dates, while 48 percent didn’t get the specific meaning of “Use By” dates. “Unwarranted confidence and the familiarity of date labels may make consumers less attentive to educational messaging that explains the food industry’s labeling system,” Turvey said. RELATED: If You Bought These Popular Chips, Throw Them Away, FDA Says.
