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Sell By Date vs. Use By Date - Trixxee - 01-25-2012

Is there a difference? I'm looking at some Trader Joe's fresh salsa that says sell by 1/25 but it seems like it should say use by 1/25.

Is this a stupid question? LOL.


Re: Sell By Date vs. Use By Date - cjs - 01-25-2012

"Normally" you should have at least a week after sell by date for a product such as a salsa.

Dairy products would be more tricky.


Re: Sell By Date vs. Use By Date - Mare749 - 01-25-2012

Not sure how much this will help, but when I worked as a sales rep, one of my accounts was a well known brand of yogurt. The yogurt was considered good for at least 2 weeks after purchase, but the stores usually try to pull it off the shelf because people will get upset if they purchase something close dated.

I had to attend weekly meetings and often the companies we represented would send someone to talk to us about new items that were coming out. This is when we would get a lot of information about the products. Most companies use the sell by date to guarantee freshness to THAT date, but that does not always mean that the product is bad if it is consumed later.

Many times canned and packaged products show very little deterioration for quite some time past the sell date. This is usually not the case with dairy items and/or fresh foods which are more perishable. The store might be able to advise you better where fresh salsa is concerned, since so much depends on how the product is packaged and if it contains preservatives.

Sorry, this is probably WAY MORE than you really wanted to know!


Re: Sell By Date vs. Use By Date - cjs - 01-26-2012

A lot of good info, Maryann - I overlooked that the salsa was fresh. Duh!


Re: Sell By Date vs. Use By Date - labradors - 01-26-2012

You also may just have to use personal experience. For example, in the stores in which I shopped when I was still in the States (and I mean specific stores, not chain names), I would have no problem with buying milk that was at its last day. Here, at one store, I've actually gotten milk that was three or four days BEFORE the date and was already sour. That's because the people at that store would bring crates of the milk packages out to the dairy department and then those crates could sit there for a while before someone finally got the milk put away into the refrigerated displays. That, coupled with not knowing how well the milk packages had been handled before that made it so I rarely buy milk at that store and, if I do, I'll open it and taste it at the cash register so that, if it IS bad, I won't have to make a separate trip back to exchange it. That store HAS appeared to have improved in the last year or two, but I still avoid buying milk there and even when I buy milk somewhere else, I buy only the one-litre bags, since the milk, here, still seems to spoil more quickly than the milk in the States.

On the other hand, I've never had any problems with yogurt.


Re: Sell By Date vs. Use By Date - pjcooks - 01-26-2012

Yes, because one market where I shop has both dates. They understand you'll probably store the food a few days before you use it.

Another market dates all chicken and hamburger one day out. Then you'll see them in the frozen section, relabeled as frozen meat.

At a reduced price, of course.


By the way, this market is doing waaaayy more business.

PJ


Re: Sell By Date vs. Use By Date - Trixxee - 01-26-2012

Thanks for the input! I had bought the salsa about 10 days ago. Tasted perfectly fine last night.


Re: Sell By Date vs. Use By Date - Mare749 - 01-26-2012

Oh, that's good, Trixxee. Just a thought, but you might want to use it up quickly if it's "fresh" salsa without any preservatives. I was unpleasantly surprised how quickly it deteriorates once opened.