Can Stores Sell Expired Food? (Expiration + More)

At one time or another, we’ve all come across an item that’s either expired or right on top of its expiration date.

If you’re that person that gets down on all fours and inserts half your body into the store fridge to find that milk with a later expiration date, “fresh” has special meaning for you.

Technically, the FDA doesn’t have much to say about selling expired foods, with the exception of baby formula. Though it’s not technically illegal to sell expired foods, most stores won’t or don’t do it. There are, however, applicable state laws involved as well.

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Federal Law’s Stance on Food Expiration

There is no federal law that requires retail grocery chains to place expiration dates on their products. If you think about it, it would largely be a guessing game in any case.

For instance, a bag of sliced sandwich bread may last two weeks. Then again, it may only last two days.

What happens if you leave the bag open? What happens if two customers, from two different homes, buy the same brand of bread with the same “Best If” date, and one has a more humid home than the other?

The point is, it’s difficult to tell the exact date on which food goes from healthy and good to food poison.

A federal government that tries to enforce an absolute expiration date would have a monumental task in front of it. Plus, many metric tons of otherwise good food would be wasted on a daily basis.

For that reason, the feds tend to leave these issues up to states and local municipalities, both of which know more about that state’s imports, exports, and general needs.

How Grocery Retail Chains Provide “Expiration” Dates

There are generally five types of dates you’ll find on foods:

Best Before
Freeze By
Expired By
Sell By
Best if Used By

The expiration date provided is probably the retailer’s best guess estimate on when the product will expire.

The “expired by” date is usually reserved for dairy products, which are far more predictable in terms of when they are no longer any good to consume.

Everything else is essentially guesswork. For bread, as long as it’s not stale and doesn’t have any mold on it, it’s generally safe to consume or feed to your livestock (if applicable).

That’s why these markers are so innocuous.

If there were solid, set-in-stone expiration dates on everything, we would end up wasting a ton of extra food in a country where food waste is exceptional, to begin with.

According to the FDA’s own words, “Except for infant formula, product dating is not required by federal regulations.”

Should You Follow Dates on Consumable Goods?

In general, you should stick with whatever date the retail chain provides on the packaging. At the very least, you should consume the food before it reaches that date.

There are a few exceptions, however, such as freezing.

If a whole chicken has an end date of five days from now and you freeze it on the fourth day, it’s perfectly fine to eat it two weeks from now, so long as it’s not freezer burnt. The sell-by date also doesn’t affect the meat that’s thawing.

Large meat packages often take forever to thaw unaided, but there is no detrimental effect just because it’s frozen, well beyond its sell-by date, and taking a long time to thaw.

Most grocery retail chains supply sell-by dates because that date is the limit on how long they can display the item on store shelves.

In other words, the date rarely has anything to do with when the meat is supposed to go bad or when the retailer assumes it’s supposed to go bad.

Once that sell-by date is reached and no customers have purchased it, the meat ends up going somewhere else.

Most likely, meat that has reached its sell-by date is broken down and converted into dog and cat foods, or other highly preserved animal foods.

How Long Can You Eat Expired Food?

There’s an element of self-evaluation here and it also depends on the food and the individual. Some people won’t go near a gallon of milk if it’s a day within its expiration date.

Others will smell it a day or two after its supposed expiration date and drink it if it smells fine.

You should always consume food items before they reach their stamped dates, but there are certainly other, personal elements to consider.

Plus, stores are well aware that they open themselves up for liability by pushing foods beyond their potential expiration.

More often than not, a store will sell food based on a sell-by date well short of the actual expiration date of the product. The problem is, the consumer never really knows.

The consumer has no idea how the food was preserved, how long it was in transit, how long it took to reach the shelf, or anything really.

So how do you make a judgment call when you’re not privy to all the facts? Well, the best decision to make is to avoid eating expired foods.

What to Do When You Buy an Expired Product?

Most stores will not sell expired products. However, if you accidentally purchase an expired consumable, you should take it back to the store you purchased it from for a refund.

Most stores will definitely refund the purchase as they probably have a policy against selling expired goods.

Stores that sell expired goods or that won’t issue refunds on sold, expired goods, probably won’t last very long before they’re shut down.

What Do Supermarkets Do With Expired Food?

Much of it goes in the trash. In the United States alone, food waste is 40% of all foods sold at the market.

Fortunately, some stores are able to make good use of things like expired meats. Those meets will get processed and converted into something animals (mostly pets) can safely eat.

Depending on the food, many grocery stores will donate that food to local food shelters or food banks in the area.

It’s almost always a local thing because it makes no sense to donate an expired item that has to travel cross country for a few more days.

Though much of it gets wasted, supermarket chains are reluctant to waste anything and will do their best to minimize waste.

After all, the supermarket has to make money, or it will go under and no longer be available. Minimizing waste is essential.

Is it Okay for Shops to Sell Expired Food at a Discount Price?

That’s not something you will see very often. Stores typically have a policy to remove food items from the shelves once they’ve reached their sell-by date.

One thing you will notice is that the closer the item gets to its sell-by date, the lower the price will go.

Supermarkets will also shift their produce, meats, dairy, and bread items around, pushing the items with a closer sell-by date to the front, with newer stock in the rear.

When buying milk, it always pays to look past the first few racks of milk containers and look at the sell-by date on the back row.

Expired items are often donated, not sold. Selling them runs a higher risk of selling spoiled food. Something like that would put the retailer in question closer to a lawsuit and that’s something any store will assiduously avoid if at all possible.

With that being said, there are some stores that do it. However, they make it very clear that they are selling expired foods so customers know what they are in for.

Are Expiration Dates a Marketing Scheme?

It’s not so much a scheme as a necessity in modern-day America. No one wants to be sued so it’s the cause-and-effect end game of that fear.

Stores will absolutely waste food before they dare sell something that might be spoiled and end up in court trying to settle.

There’s too much risk involved in leaving food out beyond its expiration. When you see the expiration date or sell-by date on any kind of food or beverage in a store, the odds are good that the product will probably last much longer in reality.

That doesn’t mean you should go eating something that’s well beyond its sell-by date. It just means that supermarket chains are scared to death of mass recalls and mass lawsuits.

So, while it’s not necessarily a scheme for profit, with a bunch of backroom deals in cigar-smoke-filled offices, it is a “sort of” scheme for self-preservation.

All Things Considered

There are no federal laws regulating the food industry where expiration dates are concerned. It would be too difficult for a federal entity to cover and regulate every single grocery retail chain in America.

Something like that is better left up to the states, where there are more strenuous determinations on specific produce, dairy, bread, and meats.

Stores don’t want to open themselves up to liability, so they are far more likely to waste food well before its actual expiration date.

The best thing you can do is play it safe. Use your freezer to extend expiration dates. Avoid eating foods that are beyond their expiration dates.

References

https://www.fda.gov/food/buy-store-serve-safe-food/surplus-salvaged-and-donated-foods