Can you really trust the expiration date on the label?

I always check the expiration date on the label of everything I buy. Milk gets spoiled very easily and if it does get spoiled before the expiration date then you should bring it back to the store and tell them. They will give you a new one. I have done this many times. Do not waste your money and throw it out- it is not your fault!!

Good day to you kingparker, As far as I know, expiration date on every label of a product is somehow an approximation that the product will be spoiled a day before or after the stamp date appearing on the package. With regard to your query, a carton of milk, once it is open will become expose to air. And due to this, it should be place right away inside the fridge and put back again the cap tightly. Otherwise, the milk will somehow be contaminated that will lead to its spoilage. To top it all, it is alright to trust the expiration date stamp on the package label however, we also should observe the product a day before its expiration date.

I like to think you can and I always check the "best before" dates when purchasing food. I have however on numerous occassion but a product that had 2 weeks life left and got it home to find it was bad or it went bad with in a day or two....very disappointing!

I have not had an experience where i didn't trust the expiration date on a label. These labels are made for our safety. Not being able to trust their information is not something I have had to consider.

I think expiration dates are quite accurate for most items. But they always give an advise that you have to store in a cool dry place and right temperature. I think that contributes to items not getting spoiled soon.

I usually will check the lable on food packages before purchasing in a supermarket, even though seriously I don't think all of them are trustable. and hey, if you like designing personalized products, waazula.com is worth checking.

I always have to get loads of milk and what i tend todo is look at the milk date and sort the fridge out so that we use the one that go out of date first.My husband do all the shopping and he always gets the milk with the longest date on it.Our milk never gets time to go out of date and it has never gone off before the expiry date either,i would take it to the shop if i was you and complain.

Expiration date is only good if the product is unopened. After opening, something like milk will only last a day, even when kept in the fridge. Surprisingly, yoghurt will last longer.

I think, some of them are spoiled on wrong handling. I remember someone told me that we cannot trust a bad package good, despite of the far away expiration date.

The problem isn't the expiration date; it's how the milk was handled before you bought it. Somewhere along the way, it was probably allowed to warm up. Maybe the refrigeration failed or a customer decided they didn't want it and just put it down somewhere in the store. Expiration dates are very conservative. Usually, the food will be good several days or even weeks past the date. It depends on the kind of food and how well taken care of it was during transportation and storage. Some foods spoil quickly and others stay fresh for a long time, so the expiration date isn't always the most important thing to consider.

Of course you would need to be skeptical about all these product. Having blind faith will only lead to our honesty being shattered. However, it sounded little strange that the milk you have stored smell liked yogurt. Could there be some problems when it was stored. I don't know whether you keep the carton of milk the way it was bought or do you boil it at maximum of 100c temperature and then store it. Because in our part of the world it is best advised to boil the milk and let it cool and then only we store it in refrigerator. It is important that we don't eat spoiled eatables including milk as it is harmful for health. However, I too never trust the labeling on all the packaged foods that I bring.

i trust the expiration dates. it's because there's nothing i can do. i am not a wizard or a fortune teller to tell whether it'll spoil sooner or later. but sometimes it does fail like in your experience because the ones who processes the food we buy are also subject to mistakes, they're not perfect. sometimes, it depends on handling the product after opening. exposure to air and other things have to be considered.