Are expired expiration dates?
Cristina G. Lucio health. The initiative, which currently only intended to guide producers and intermediaries, is to prevent further pulling tons of food daily in good condition.
"I am appalled by the amount of food that goes in the trash each day. If the dates on the label are part of the problem, then we must do something about it," said Caroline Spelman, Secretary of Environment of the United Kingdom .
a lesser extent than in the British country, in Spain there are different denominations to establish the period in which a product can be consumed safely. In general, use the 'expiry date' with the very products perishables such as meat preparations, in which the presence of microorganisms can be very dangerous just days after preparation.
However, the food in which the passage of time is less harmful, as the case of crackers or cereal-often used the phrase 'best before'. "This label refers more to the fact that after that date, the nutritional and organoleptic properties of the food are not the same. You can lose flavor, texture, color ... but there is no imminent danger of food security if the conditions of conservation, "says Emilio MartÃnez de Victoria, director Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology, University of Granada. Terms
In principle, the manufacturers who set time limits, following a general indication of the law.
According to a study by the Organisation of Consumers and Users (OCU) some years ago, the maximum life usually provides, for example, a yogurt-from its development and when stored properly in the fridge is around 28 days. Fresh pasta can survive three weeks if properly refrigerated, while in the case of cookies, their viability is usually more than six months.
If the life of the product is less than three months, must appear the day, month and year you cease to be eligible. If the period is between three and 18 months, an indication of the month and year and, finally, if you exceed 18 months, simply refer to the year from which its use is not recommended.
Some products, such as alcoholic beverages over 10 degrees or vinegar, are exempt from the obligation to indicate the expiration date because, in general, is considered time consuming after processing without risk for human body. For Ileana Izverniceanu
spokesman OCU, coexistence of the two indications of time of use of food need not be a problem. "What you need to get is that people learn to interpret them, you know that eating a cupcake dated two days ago did not cause intoxication," he says.
In his opinion, it would be clearly established, and legal regulations, which products to use the expiration date and what the best before and that in some cases, this is the choice of manufacturer. "The next regulation of consumer information, which is being discussed in Europe, should regulate it," he concludes.
