What is a best-before date?

A best-before date tells you how long a food will stay at its best quality. It is about flavour, texture and appearance — not safety. After the best-before date has passed, the food doesn't suddenly become dangerous. It may simply have started to lose some of what made it good: biscuits go softer, crisps lose their crunch, coffee loses a little of its aroma, and frozen vegetables may look less vibrant.

You'll usually find best-before dates on shelf-stable and longer-life products such as tinned goods, dried foods, frozen foods, cereals, crisps, biscuits and snacks. These are foods that don't spoil quickly, which is exactly why the date is a guide to quality rather than a safety deadline.

There is one important condition: a best-before date is only accurate if the food has been stored as instructed on the packaging. A tin kept in a cool, dry cupboard will easily live up to its date; the same tin left somewhere hot and damp may not. There is also one notable exception worth remembering — the Food Standards Agency advises not eating eggs more than a day or two past their best-before date, particularly for children, older people, and anyone who is pregnant or unwell.

What is a use-by date?

A use-by date is about safety, and it is the single most important date on any food label. Unlike a best-before date, this one is a firm rule rather than a suggestion. You should not eat, cook or freeze food after its use-by date — even if it looks and smells completely normal.

That last point is the part people find hardest to accept, so it's worth being clear about why. Foods that carry a use-by date are high-risk perishable products: raw and cooked meat, fish and seafood, ready meals, soft cheeses and deli items. On these foods, harmful bacteria can grow to dangerous levels without changing the way the food looks, smells or tastes. A piece of chicken can appear and smell perfectly fresh and still make you seriously ill. Because your senses simply cannot detect the risk, the use-by date exists to make the decision for you.

The rule is straightforward: if a food has a use-by date and that date has passed, throw it away. No amount of cooking reliably makes unsafe food safe again.

Best-before vs use-by: the key difference

If you remember only one thing from this guide, make it this: best-before is about quality, and use-by is about safety. Quality is a suggestion; safety is a rule. Here's how the two compare at a glance:

Is it safe to eat food after the best-before date?

In most cases, yes. Because a best-before date is a measure of quality rather than safety, the food is generally still safe to eat once the date has passed — it may just not be at its absolute best. Manufacturers also tend to set these dates conservatively, building in a comfortable margin, so plenty of products are still perfectly good well beyond the date printed on the pack.

This is one of the few times your own judgement is genuinely useful. With best-before foods, you can look, smell and use common sense. If a tin of beans is a month past its best-before date but the tin is undamaged and the contents look and smell normal, it's almost certainly fine. The main exception, as mentioned earlier, is eggs — stick closely to their best-before date to be safe.

Just remember that this judgement call applies to best-before foods only. Never apply the “looks fine, smells fine” test to a food with a use-by date — that's the one situation where your senses can let you down badly.

Why supermarkets and outlets sell food past best-before

Here's something many people don't realise: it is completely legal for retailers to sell food after its best-before date in the UK, as long as the food is still safe to eat. It is only illegal to sell food after its use-by date. That distinction is the entire legal basis for surplus and outlet retail.

So why does perfectly good food end up needing a new home in the first place? It's rarely anything to do with the food itself. Stock becomes surplus for all sorts of ordinary business reasons: a brand overproduces ahead of a promotion that's since ended, packaging gets redesigned and the old design has to clear, a seasonal line doesn't sell through in time, or a product is simply approaching its best-before date faster than a supermarket can shift it. None of these things make the food any less good to eat.

This is exactly how Peeko works. We buy surplus stock, clearance lines and bulk quantities from brands and suppliers, then pass the savings on — which is how we can offer big-name brands at a fraction of their usual price. Some products have a shorter best-before date, and we always display any relevant dates clearly so you know exactly what you're getting. It's the same food you'd find in any supermarket, just rescued before it could go to waste. You can see the latest examples on our today's surplus deals page, with plenty of grocery bargains from as little as £1 in our £1 and under range.

How to store food to make the dates last

Whether a date is about quality or safety, it only holds true if the food is stored properly. A few simple habits will help you get the most out of everything in your kitchen:

• Follow the packaging instructions. “Store in a cool, dry place” or “keep refrigerated” isn't filler — the printed date assumes you've done exactly that.

• Keep your fridge below 5°C. Many fridges run warmer than people think. A cheap fridge thermometer is one of the easiest ways to make chilled food last as long as it should.

• Use the freezer as a pause button. You can freeze most foods right up to the end of the use-by date to extend their life. Once defrosted, treat the food as fresh — eat it promptly and don't refreeze it.

• Reseal and store airtight. Once opened, many best-before foods keep their quality far longer in an airtight container away from light and heat.

The food waste problem (and how buying surplus helps)

Confusion over date labels isn't just frustrating — it's expensive, and it's a genuine driver of food waste. UK households throw away food worth around £14 billion every year, which works out at roughly £800 for the average household. A great deal of that is avoidable, and misreading best-before dates as if they were use-by dates is part of the problem — something the Food Standards Agency has researched directly.

The scale of the issue is striking. Globally, around a third of all the food produced each year is lost or wasted. Every tin, packet or jar that gets binned unnecessarily represents not just wasted money, but all the energy, water and effort that went into producing it in the first place.

This is where understanding the labels pays off twice over. Knowing that a best-before date is a quality guide, not a safety cut-off, means you waste less of your own food at home. And choosing to buy surplus stock — perfectly good food that would otherwise have been thrown away — keeps it out of the bin entirely. You save money, and a little less goes to waste. That's the whole idea behind what we do at Peeko.

Frequently asked questions

Can you eat food after the best-before date?

Yes, in most cases. Best-before is a quality indicator, so food is generally safe to eat afterwards — it may just be slightly less fresh in taste or texture. The main exception is eggs, which the FSA advises eating within a day or two of the best-before date.

What happens if you eat food after the use-by date?

You should never eat food after its use-by date. Use-by dates appear on high-risk foods where harmful bacteria can grow to dangerous levels without any change in smell, taste or appearance, so it isn't safe to judge by your senses. If a food is past its use-by date, throw it away.

Is it legal to sell food past its best-before date?

Yes. UK retailers can legally sell food after its best-before date as long as it is still safe to eat. It is only illegal to sell food after its use-by date. This is exactly how surplus and outlet stores like Peeko are able to offer such low prices on big-brand products.

Can you freeze food on its use-by date?

Yes. You can freeze most foods right up to the end of the use-by date to extend their life. Once defrosted, eat the food promptly and don't refreeze it unless you've cooked it in between.

Why is surplus food so cheap?

Surplus food is often close to or just past its best-before date, or comes from overproduction, packaging changes or seasonal stock. It's still safe and in good condition — it simply can't be sold through normal supermarket channels, so it's sold at a fraction of the price instead of being thrown away.