Food expiration dates don’t mean what you think - Carolyn Beans

Find out what expiration date labels on food actually mean, and discover ways communities and governments can lessen food waste.

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Countries around the world waste huge amounts of food every year: roughly a fifth of food items in the US are tossed because consumers aren’t sure how to interpret expiration labels. But most groceries are still perfectly safe to eat past their expiration dates. If the dates on our food don’t tell us that something’s gone bad, what do they tell us? Carolyn Beans shares how to prevent food waste.

Lesson by Carolyn Beans, directed by Anton Bogaty.

This video made possible in collaboration with Speed & Scale

A special thanks to Roni Neff who provided information and insights for the development of this video.

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[jumpywizard]

This stuff should be taught in schools. I’m French and when I first met my American husband and moved in with him and some other roommates I was dumbfounded on how easily they would throw perfectly fine food away.

[theobserver]

"fresh until" and "safe to consume until"
having these two dates make a great difference

[emilygastelum]

My mom used to work at 7-Eleven and would always bring home hot foods, pastries, and cold sandwiches that were marked to be tossed that day. The food was still perfectly good in all aspects and it got me fed through high school.

[bryansparkman]

I've always kept foods beyond the expiration dates specifically canned foods, condiments, and dried pastas. People would give me a hard time....I'm glad that this video exists. 😊

[AngelaMastrodonato]

My husband suffered from food poisoning years ago, about a year before we met. Consequently, he’s paranoid about food dates no matter how often I try to explain to him that most shelf-stable food is good past its date. I am strict with dates for any packaged mix that contains powdered milk or egg though, such as pancake mix.

[heyrayhere]

my mom always did this. she judges the safety of the food based on her senses and not the expiry dates. most of our relatives often teased her, but she continued to feed us food past the expiry date if it were still healthy and showed how we never got food poison or any related health issues.

[jaames]

My mom worked for a Canadian expat who throws away food that was a few days before the labeled date. Once every month, my mom would take home HUGE boxes of these goodies deemed "unsafe" by her boss, and give it to us. That's how I grew up eating Whole Foods-esque organic food items I would never have been able to afford in the first place. I would like to take this moment to thank my mom's boss. I would never have been able to taste A5 wagyu steak, or organic copper river salmon if not for her. Only bad thing that came out if this was I got a taste for how the other half lives. lol

[sirajummonira]

I really needed this video, always felt horrid about throwing away expired foods, this is trully educational and helpful for the environment

[ericaarseth]

My girlfriend needs to watch this, I've told her repeatedly that "sell by" or exp dates are not the day the food goes bad! A week or two ago, just after thanksgiving, I went into a AM/PM to buy some of the 3-pack cookies they sell, when I got up to the counter their were several packages of them sitting on the checkout counter. the casher said they had to be thrown out 'cause they were a DAY old! I got 3 pack for free cause of this!

[nehlaa]

I have been trying to tell my roomates this for years. They refuses to eat anything that is past its "best by" date, even though there is nothing physically wrong with it.

[technojunkie]

I was always taught as a kid that using your senses was the best way to tell if groceries had gone bad or not - so imagine my shock when I saw a friend throw away a newly bought gallon of milk just because it was one day past the Best Used By date 😩

[kaundawootenjr.]

I worked at a grocery store and used to be in pain by how much food we couldn't sell just because it was a day past the expiration date. Thankfully just because we couldn't sell them didn't mean we couldn't give them away, so alot of it got donated, put in the break room, or taken home for us to eat. I honestly think I've gotten sick more times from eating at restaurants and cafeterias than eating out of date food.

[raystinger]

There's another option: only buy the food you know you're going to eat. People tend to overstock food for no reason. If the food you have is expiring, that's a sign you're buying too much of it!

[cbgaming]

This video actually reminds me of when me and my cousins were eating baby carrots while watching TV. We ate almost the whole bag before a cousin says that the label indicated it expired a bit ago. But we kept eating them as they were still crunchy

[afaris]

I used to take foods for granted, like not finishing the foods when I didn't feel like it. But since I read an article about famine in third-world countries and how we should appreciate foods, I stopped wasting foods. It's the least I can do to be grateful for what I have.
I also think that if all the edible wasted foods could be shared to those in needs, maybe the word "famine" won't even exist.

[RandomCitizen]

Love the fact that this video was narrated by the lovely Mrs. Beans

[hamster]

TED ed always know which art style to go with. makes me happy every time

[sairamsk]

Yes, this is a big problem in the US but countries in Africa or Asia mostly have traditions and cultures of not wasting food. They are prominent in not throwing away a thing eaten to live.

[kimberlyolander]

I absolutely loved this video because I have told my kids over and over again that just because something says it is out of date that it is not good when I have used things far beyond their dates and I have also found a few items that went bad before their date.😊

[TheAhmadiMuslimGirl]

I'm so glad that someone made a video on this topic. I've been managing my household for 15 years and my kitchen/food waste is very little for the size of my family. I have always relied on my senses to judge if smth has gone bad.