Essential facts about Date Marking on food labels that every business must know !

Date Marking is marking your food product label with the appropriate expiry/ use by or best before date apart from the date of manufacture or packaging.

Unlike other products in the market, food products are unique and require mandatory date marking. With food being perishable in nature, knowing its shelf life is critical to avoid getting sick from eating unsafe food and to avoid illnesses.

Date Marking is basically marking your food product label with the appropriate expiry/ use by or best before date apart from date of manufacture or packaging. It enables a consumer to comprehend for how long the product can be used in terms of safety and quality and hence whether he/ she should buy that product. Date marking is a system to control the growth of bacteria by identifying how old the foods are and hence when it should be discarded. 

What is the difference between Best Before date and Expiry Date? 

All Food products are date marked with either a use-by date/ expiry date or best before the date to indicate the shelf life of that product. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) being the apex Food Regulator of India has in its ‘Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) Regulations, 2020’, specifying the difference in these terms as given below.

Best before date

• “The date which signifies the end of the period under any stated storage conditions during which the food product shall remain fully marketable and shall retain any specific qualities for which tacit or express claims have been made, and beyond that date, the food may still be perfectly safe to consume, though, its quality may have diminished. However, the product shall not be sold if at any stage the product becomes unsafe.”
• Foods kept beyond the best before date are safe to eat, however they may undergo quality deteriorations and hence it’s on the risk of the consumer to consume such foods or not.
• The key point of this date is that if Processed food products are stored, handled properly the safety and quality of the food is guaranteed even after its best before date. However, once the pack is opened the best before date is not applicable.
• Foods that stay beyond 3 months or 90 days declare best before dates on their products, Examples include breakfast cereals, bakery and snacks, chocolates, etc.

 Use by or Expiry Date

• “The date, which signifies the end of the estimated period under any stated storage conditions, after which the product may not remain safe and the food product probably will not have the quality of safety attributes normally expected by the consumers and the food, shall not be sold or distributed for human consumption.”
• This date is important because it signifies that a particular food product cannot be eaten beyond its expiry date or use by date in terms of both quality and safety aspects.
• Usually pre-packaged perishable foods such as milk, bread, etc have a use by dates and nutritional supplements, formula foods, etc have expiry dates.

Laws on Date marking by FSSAI (...)

Read full blog on https://bit.ly/3iv2iqJ

References

1.Alabama Public Health. What is Date Marking and why is it important? 

2. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). Regulations. Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) Regulations. 

3. Food Standards Agency UK. (March, 2021). Best before and use by dates. Food Safety and Hygiene. 

4. Canadian Institute of Food Safety. The Difference Between Best Before and Expiry Dates. 

5. Tyagi H (October, 2020). World Food Day 2020: How food waste affects the economy. Times Now News.