Generally people refer to ‘best before’ dates to find out if the food is still safe to eat or not but experts believe that tons of good food is thrown away every year just because people doubt about the safety of the food after the ‘best before’ dates whereas a new guideline suggests that it is simply a guide to the food quality.

Perishable foods like prawns or eggs would come with a simple ‘use by’ date which suggests the time when food will become dangerous to eat but food like bread or biscuits can be eaten or used in another dish without any safety issues even after the ‘best before’ date.

Under European law makes it mandatory to use 'best before' or 'use by' dates on food products but it further mentions that ‘use by’ has to be used on perishable foods like cheese and meat for safety reasons and ‘best before’ has to be used just to suggest the freshness level of the food to the consumer.

A Spokesman of the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs stated, “By law pre-packed food must show a ‘best before’ date, even though many foods are still safe to eat after that date. This is very different from the ‘use by’ date that shows when food is no longer safe and should be thrown away”.