Food Safety – Understanding Kroger Sell-By Dates for Safe Consumption

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I have a box (actually, 6 boxes) of Kroger brand lime gelatin dessert with sell-by date stamped:

SELL BY JUN 05 09B KA

Is this June 5, 2009,
June 9, 2005 or
June 2005 (with "09B" of no consequence)?

Best Answer

This is standard dating and would be June 5, 2009. In the US it's pretty standard for open dating to be formatted as month-day-year.

Also from the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service:

Does Federal Law Require Dating?

Except for infant formula, product dating is not required by Federal regulations.

For meat, poultry, and egg products under the jurisdiction of the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), dates may be voluntarily applied provided they are labeled in a manner that is truthful and not misleading and in compliance with FSIS regulations1. To comply, a calendar date must express both the month and day of the month. In the case of shelf-stable and frozen products, the year must also be displayed. Additionally, immediately adjacent to the date must be a phrase explaining the meaning of that date such as "Best if Used By."

(Emphasis mine.)

Related Solutions

Beef – Ground beef storage and use past sell-by date

(1) Yes, that's fine. If you use freezer bags, you don't need foil even. For longer-term frozen storage, vacuum sealed bags work better.

(2) Frozen food stored at 0°F (or lower) is basically safe to eat forever. Eventually, the flavor will be affected and you won't want to eat it (but it won't make you sick). Three to four months is reasonable in tightly-sealed freezer bags. Longer in vacuum sealed bags. The storage time is entirely a flavor thing, so you can get away with a little longer for strongly-seasoned meat (e.g., tacos) vs. lightly seasoned (hamburger). The sell-by date assumes storage at around 30°F (normal for refrigerated meat)

(3) I believe so, stuff should still be good a few days after the sell by date.

Food Safety – USDA or Food Labeling Requirements for Bacon?

To quote from your own source:

It’s best to plan ahead for slow, safe thawing in the refrigerator. After defrosting bacon by this method, it will be safe in the refrigerator for 7 days before cooking. If you decide not to use the bacon during this time, you can safely refreeze it without cooking it first.

And, further up:

It’s not important if a date expires after freezing bacon because all foods stay safe while frozen.

Let's look at what happens when you freeze food:

Due to the low temperatures, the growth of all¹ molds, bacteria and other "nasties" is stopped or at least slowed down to an extremely slow rate. So from the perspective of your food, time is suspended while frozen. (Quality issues left aside, we are talking food safety here.)

So the clock starts ticking again once you defrost your food and can be stopped when re-freezing. Taking into account that your bacon was supposed to be good until the end of the month and freezing doesn't shorten that time, you should be fine at least until the original best-by-date.

In theory you could calculate

new date = thawing date + days left when freezing

But that's based on estimated bacterial growth, not taking possible quality issues into account - and we shouldn't always go to the limit, should we?.

¹ "all" as in "all typical pathogens". Of course there are bacteria that thrive on ice, but those are not relevant here.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Beef – Ground beef storage and use past sell-by date

Food Safety – USDA or Food Labeling Requirements for Bacon?

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