Tuesday 3 December 2013

Information About Food Expiration & Sell-By Dates

By Keren Kipfer


Are you the type who buys food or drink and ensures that the labels including important data like expiration dates are read first? We can sometimes be careless and tend to look away from such information when it comes to the buying or consuming them. While it is important to always make note of these dates, they don't necessarily indicate whether or not an item is safe to eat.

It is always noteworthy for consumers to look at expiration dates for several important items such as foods, drinks and medicines. However, before you throw away any of these items that have a date that has already passed, try to ponder on one truth: that sometimes dates are not truly expiration dates and the quality of the item is still fine days and weeks or even months after this printed date. There are a few cases where the government sets the expiration date and these dates truly are meant to be taken literally. Items where you need to truly follow the expiration dates are baby foods and formulas which have dates that are put into place to ensure the safety of your children.

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.

As for shelf-stable items like canned foods, boxed food products like macaroni and cheese, mayonnaise and many more similar items, "best if used by" or "use by" dates are being used. Manufacturers of such products use such detail in order to convey to consumers that in fact their product will have its best taste before the date stated but is nearly always edible and safe passed this date. If in case you are a bit in doubt about whether or not to consume a product, the best tool for you to use is still your sense of smell and taste.

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.

For companies using such coder printers, buying inks and make-up for such machines is a common occurrence. However, the manufacturers sells their inks at very high prices and its best to find a product id company that creates high-quality versions of these inks and sells them for much less. Whether you need Imaje ink, Altima ink, Domino ink, VideoJet ink or ink for some other brand of id printer, these companies can help you save a great deal of money throughout the year.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment