For some reason, over the course of mankind, when someone puts a date on a jug of milk it means you need to avoid ingesting it at all costs. Doing so will cause you to end up with milk face…and no one wants milk face.
But does this date REALLY mean that your food has gone bad? When it comes to milk A LOT of people are willing to blow right past the date as long as the milk basically seems fine. In fact, 16% of people will drink it up to EIGHT days after.
Personally, expiration dates on milk is one date that I stick with as gospel. Same goes for eggs. Maybe I’m overly paranoid about food expiration, but something about drinking sour milk or eating rotten eggs just freaks me out.
Here’s the thing though. For everything else, you may be ok to push those dates a bit. The average family wastes about 14% of the food they buy because they throw it out too early.
That date on the carton is usually a SELL-BY date, not an expiration date. So you can keep eating the food after that date . . . it just means the taste, texture, appearance and nutritional value will fade a little bit.
Here are some foods that people are the most likely to throw away prematurely . . . and how long it’s safe to keep eating them after the sell-by date.
—MILK. As long as it’s refrigerated, it’s safe for about a week after the sell-by date.
—COTTAGE CHEESE. It stays good for 10 to 14 days after the date.
—MAYO. It stays good for three to four months after you open it.
—YOGURT. Yogurt is still good seven to 10 days after the sell-by date.
—EGGS. They should last at least three to five weeks after the sell-by date.
So, are you willing to roll the dice with your food? I think things like sour cream are fine because well, it’s sour anyway right?