Best Before And Use By Dates: What They Imply On Indian

Food Labels

What ‘Best Before’ Actually Means

‘Best before’ is a quality marker, not a safety cut-off. It tells you the point up to which the manufacturer guarantees the food will retain its intended taste, texture, and nutritional value, provided it has been stored the way the label indicates. The term indicates the end of the period during which the food remains fully marketable and retains the specific qualities it claims to have. 

Once that date passes, a packet of namkeen, a jar of brined olives or even gujiya will show changes in texture, taste and flavour. This does not mean the product is inedible, and certain items, which are dry and more stable, like biscuits, dry snacks, spices, and packaged atta, usually carry this label.

What ‘Use By’ Actually Means

‘Use by’ refers to the ‘expiry date’, which is the date after which a food is no longer considered safe to eat, regardless of how it might appear. This label is mostly used on perishables like dairy, cut fruits and vegetables, ready-to-eat meals, chilled meat, and similar easily-spoiling categories where harmful bacteria can grow well before any visible spoilage (think mould in bread or your favourite jalebi). 

Under India's current food labelling rules, the date of manufacture or packaging and the expiry or use-by date must be declared on the label, while a best before date is optional additional information. In practice, this means ‘use by’ is the label you should never argue with, no matter how fresh the product looks on the outside.

How FSSAI Regulates Date Labelling on Packaged Food

In India, all of this food safety labelling is governed by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) under the Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) Regulations, 2020, which replaced the older 2011 packaging rules. The regulations define terms including ‘best before date’, ‘date of manufacture’, ‘date of packaging’, and ‘use by’ or ‘expiry’ as part of the labelling framework every food business operator must follow. The format also depends on how long a product lasts: 

• For items with a shelf life of more than three months, manufacturers can print just the month and year

• For shorter shelf-life products, the full day, month, and year must appear on the pack. 

A typical ‘Best Before’ or ‘Use By’ declaration for a longer shelf-life item looks like ‘Best Before: 06/2026’, while shorter shelf-life products need the complete date. Following FSSAI food label rules this closely is exactly why the two dates aren't printed the same way across every product on a supermarket shelf. However, there are two exceptions:

• Infant milk substitutes and infant foods are required to carry only a ‘use by’ or recommended last consumption date, never a ‘best before’ label, since there's no room for ambiguity with the health of a child. 

• Alcoholic beverages with 10% or more alcohol by volume, along with carbonated or plain water in returnable glass bottles, are also exempt from carrying a best before date.

Why the Two Dates are Not Interchangeable

The confusion between ‘best before’ and ‘use by’ is one of the biggest sources of food waste in Indian kitchens, it’s a common blind spot that makes people routinely throw out biscuits, rice, or spices the day the ‘best before’ date passes, even though these products are still fit for consumption for a while afterwards. This is one side of the coin, the other side there are some people who tend to stretch ‘use by’ dates on dairy or ready-to-eat items and then wonder why they end up with an upset stomach. 

Assuming a normal smell or appearance does not mean fit for consumption because at a microscopic level the spoil or rot might have already started, that will mess up your gut. The distinction FSSAI draws in here is that ‘best before’ indicates when food remains fully marketable while retaining specific qualities, whereas ‘use by’ signifies the date after which the food should not be consumed at all. Treating both labels the same way defeats the purpose of having two separate categories in the first place.

How to Tell if Packaged Food is Still Safe to Eat

A date on the back or front of a pack is only the starting point towards understanding if a certain food item is safe to eat; a lot of it depends on how the product has been stored as well. Here's making it easier:

• If it's past the ‘best before’ date and shelf-stable (biscuits, packaged flour, dry spices, canned goods that can be stored at room temperature in a sealed condition), check for an intact seal, no odd smell, no visible mould or pest activity, and no swelling of the pack. If all of that checks out, it's fine to consume.

• If it's past the ‘use by’ date on a perishable (milk, paneer, cut fruit, ready meals, meat), toss it immediately, even if it looks and smells normal. Bacterial growth on these categories often isn't visible or detectable by smell.

• If the packaging is damaged, bloated, leaking, or the seal is broken, discard the product regardless of which date is printed. For such cases, the storage conditions have likely been compromised.

• If storage instructions on the label (refrigerate after opening, consume within X days of opening) haven't been followed, the printed date no longer applies, and the food item should be consumed within a shorter safety window.

Best Before vs Use By

Reading Food Labels to Better Food Safety

Avoiding a stomach upset is one side to reading food labels and understanding which food is truly expired versus which one is not. It also scales down food waste, and in turn helps you save money. Don’t throw away something just because it has crossed its ‘best before’ date, because in many cases the food can still be consumed. Reading labels correctly and understanding that FSSAI food label rules will help you separate quality warnings from safety warnings, help cut down on that waste without compromising on actual safety where it counts.