Wednesday 1 January 2014

Information Regarding Expiration Dates

By Keren Kipfer


Every time you purchase a drink or food product, do you read the labels and possibly consider looking into important details such as expiration dates? For many of us, buying a product near its expiration date is not to be considered, but often these dates are misunderstood. Here are a few quick facts that might help you know what food is edible near and passed these dates.

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.

Perishable products like milk, beef and other meat products, poultry as well as seafood have what is known as a sell-by dates. The stores must sell these perishables by this date, but they are generally still perfectly able to sit in your fridge for a couple of days and still be used. You can even freeze meats that are a day or two passed the sell-by dates. If everything looks and tastes fresh, the food is probably still ok to consume.

"Best if used by" or "use by" dates can be found used for shelf-stable items like your typical canned foods, boxed pastas, mayonnaise or any other similar items. The manufacturers of such products have these details to inform consumers that they are at the peak of freshness prior to that date. This doesn't mean that a canned good with a month-old expiration date is bad; it simply means the quality might be reduced. As for the doubt that may still be lingering there on whether to consume or not a certain product, your sense of smell and taste will still hold the best judgment.

There are special machines that print these expiration and sell-by dates onto package. These id coders, as they are known, also responsible for printing serial numbers and batch numbers onto a variety of materials including glass jars, aluminum cans, foil bags, cardboard and more. These coders work very quickly and the ink used in an id coder dries quickly as well. There are quite a few brands of coders, including Altima coders, Imaje coders, Willett coders, Domino coders and others.

Most companies that use such machines often need replacement inks and make-up for these id coders. Buying directly from your coder manufacturer is quite expensive, and you can save money by purchasing from a special product id company with generic versions of these inks. In finding them you will be able to get high quality yet budget-friendly generic versions of VideoJet ink, Imaje ink, Domino ink and more.




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