Thursday, 26 December 2013

Expiration Dates 101: Helpful Information About Your Food

By Keren Kipfer


Often when we purchase food products or beverages we don't look at the expiration dates printed on the packaging. On the other hand, some people are careful not to purchase products where the date is soon to expire. But what do these dates actually mean and are these foods still safe to eat and use? There are important reasons why these details are included on packaging, but they don't always mean that your food is automatically bad. Read on and learn a little bit about these dates.

If you want to be a wise consumer you need to be conscious about expiration dates for products like food, beverages and different types of medicine. When you have the itch to throw away stuff with dates that seem to have passed try to consider this first: that in some cases the dates that are printed are not necessarily stating that the item is now unsafe and not edible. For some products though, the expiration date is literal and required by the government and this includes items for infants and toddlers, such as formula and jarred baby food. When the expiration date has passed, these items should be tossed away.

When you refer to sell-by dates, they are basically pertaining to products that are perishable like milk, beef, poultry and seafood or other meat items. Stores sell such products by their "date" but there is an allowance for you so as to enable you to store them in your fridge for a while. Some people even have these items frozen and kept for a day or two past its sell-by date. A general guideline often points that it is still fine to consume such product for as long as they look and smell fresh. If something looks strange or smells odd, then toss it and don't take a chance.

"Best if used by" or "use by" dates can be found used for shelf-stable items like your typical canned foods, boxed pastas, mayonnaise or any other similar items. The manufacturers of such products have these details to inform consumers that they are at the peak of freshness prior to that date. This doesn't mean that a canned good with a month-old expiration date is bad; it simply means the quality might be reduced. As for the doubt that may still be lingering there on whether to consume or not a certain product, your sense of smell and taste will still hold the best judgment.

If you are looking into machines responsible for printing these expiration dates then you need to know that these are called id coders or id printers. Even batch numbers and serial numbers for products are printed by such machines, which work quickly and use fast-drying inks that adhere to many different package materials. There are many brands of id coders, such as VideoJet coders, Maxima coders, Domino coders and Willett coders.

Most companies that use such machines often need replacement inks and make-up for these id coders. Buying directly from your coder manufacturer is quite expensive, and you can save money by purchasing from a special product id company with generic versions of these inks. In finding them you will be able to get high quality yet budget-friendly generic versions of VideoJet ink, Imaje ink, Domino ink and more.




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