20 Foods You Can Eat After the Expiration Date

If you have products and foods at home, in your fridge or in your pantry and you are unsure whether to eat them or throw them in the trash, here is a list of foods that are safe to use even if the expiration date has passed.

First of all, it’s important to distinguish between the best before date and the best before date. You’ll find these dates on food labels.

Before consuming any food, our instinct is to check the expiration date, also known as the best before date. If the date has passed, we tend to throw certain foods away without thinking.

But these expiration dates are also the reason why there is a lot of food waste, which is why we must first understand them well, because it is possible to consume many foods even after the expiration date.

If you have products and foods at home, in your fridge or in your pantry and you are unsure whether to eat them or throw them in the trash, here is a list of foods that are safe to use even if the expiration date has passed.

Pastry
What do you need to know about food expiration dates?
First of all, it is important to distinguish between the best before date and the best before date. You will find these dates on food labels. The best before date (BDD) is generally preceded by the words “best before…” and concerns less perishable foods such as eggs or beer, for example. The best before date (BBD) is preceded by the words “use by…” and concerns perishable products. These are products that are generally kept in the refrigerator, such as yogurt or fresh milk, and which can endanger your health if they have expired and you consume them.

Once you have understood this difference between the dates, you should know that you can consume products with a best before date after this date without taking any risk, as confirmed by the AFSCA.

There are many other foods you’ll find in supermarkets that don’t have to have an expiration date, including alcohol, but also fresh fruits and vegetables.

What foods can you eat after the expiration date?

Applesauce
If you have these foods in your cupboard and the expiration date has passed, don’t worry, you can still eat them if you take the necessary precautions!

cakes
1. Cake Mix
If you have cake mix at home, you can still safely eat it 4 to 5 months after the expiration date if it has been stored in a cool, dry place.

2. Milk
You may not know this, but milk can still be consumed after its expiration date. If you’ve stored it in the refrigerator and haven’t opened it yet, it can last longer than the date indicated. Just check that it’s still fresh before consuming it.

3. Applesauce
If you have applesauce in a cool, dark place that you haven’t opened yet, don’t worry: you can eat it up to 18 months after the expiration date!

4. Honey Although
honey comes with an expiration date, it’s a food with antiseptic properties and therefore never expires. While the color and texture may change over time, it’s still safe to eat if you avoid storing it in a dark cupboard.

5. Desserts
If you have a sweet tooth and have leftover desserts, you can still eat them 3 to 4 weeks after the expiration date and satisfy your craving in a snap!

6. Preserved products
Generally, the expiration dates on storage containers indicate that you can consume them up to 3 years after, but you can go up to 4 years or more as long as you have left them in a cool, dry place.

7. Hard Cheeses

Hard cheeses like cheddar or parmesan can be eaten up to a month after the expiration date. If there are any moldy parts, you can simply cut them off and use the rest without any problem.

eggs
8. Eggs
Craving an omelet and it’s past the expiration date? No problem, you can easily check if they haven’t gone bad: put the egg in a bowl of water, if it sinks, you can eat it.

9. Bread

If you buy your bread fresh, you usually eat it within a day. But don’t worry, as long as you don’t see any mold, you can still eat it. If you want to keep it for two weeks past the expiration date, refrigerate or freeze it.

10. Butter
If you see that your butter is about to expire, the solution is simple: put it in the freezer and it will stay fresh and edible for longer.

11. Yogurt
As long as the yogurt is unopened and refrigerated, you can still eat it one to three weeks after purchase. If you notice an unpleasant odor or the texture seems odd, throw it out.

12. Pasta Dried
pasta generally has a shelf life of two years, but since it is a dry product, you can safely consume it even after three years, unless the smell of the pasta seems unusual to you.

13. Salad mixes

Bags of salad mixes made with arugula, for example, can be eaten after the expiration date indicated; you just need to cut off any damaged or wilted pieces.

14. Frozen Foods
It’s a well-known fact that the temperature in your freezer prevents your food from melting. If you still have packaged frozen foods, they can be safely consumed after the expiration date.

15. Cookies or Chips
Since the oils inside cookies or chips take a long time to spoil, you can generally eat them as long as they don’t smell bad and the texture seems normal.

chocolate-1
16. Chocolate
If your chocolate is still sealed and stored in a cool, dry place, you can eat it well past its expiration date. Milk chocolate, for example, can be eaten up to 8 months after its expiration date, and you can safely use it to make desserts.

17. Peanut butter

Whether you store it in your cupboard or in the refrigerator, unopened peanut butter can be consumed for more than a year after its expiration date. Natural peanut butter has a shorter shelf life: two to three months longer in your cupboard and three to six months longer in the refrigerator.

18. Cereals
The flavor of cereals can change over time, but they can still be eaten 6 months after the expiration date. You can also use them to make desserts or cakes.

19. Pickled Vegetables

If you have beets, cucumbers, or other pickled vegetables at home, they can be eaten and stored for one to two years after the expiration date, even if they have been opened. You can store them in your fridge or cupboard and eat them without any problem as long as you close the jar tightly each time.

Condiments
20. Condiments
If you left your ketchup unopened in the cupboard, you can use it up to a year after its expiration date, and for mustard, you can use it up to two years. Once opened, consume your ketchup within six months, for mustard, you can keep it in the fridge for a while.

If you have any of these foods at home, now you know whether you should throw them in the trash or whether they are safe to eat, thus avoiding waste!

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