FOOD labels have date marks to inform us about their shelf life. The marks tell how long food can be kept before it begins to deteriorate.
All food with a shelf life of less than 2 years must be date-marked.
A 'use by' date means the food must be eaten or thrown away by the date on the label.
A 'best before' date means the food is still safe to eat after the date, if it is not damaged, deteriorated or perished.
Another fun fact, a Julian Date is a traceability date that appears on a food product as a 4 digit code, in the absence of Best Before or Use By information.
The first number indicates the year and the remaining numbers indicate the day in the calendar, eg. a Julian Date of 6273 assigns 6 for year 2016 and 273 for 30 September.
