So recently ive learnt that not everybody knew the best before dates on food packaging are a general outline more than a strict cutoff point. Upon further inspection ive found myself in a rabbit hole of legal documents. TLDR is yes best before dates are a general outline but most of them are written to show the peak consumption date rather than when the food genuinely goes bad and this is one of the biggest drivers of food waste in the household level. Governments are trying to push the dates back so that people genuinely throw the food out when it goes bad. UK, EU and US have been trying to get rid of best before dates on certain items that dont genuinely pose a serious health risk or when it is obvious to the sensory organs when the food goes bad like fruits and vegetables, and for those items that are hard to tell the safety of, dates are being pushed back to the furthest date within reason that the food is reasonably safe to consume. The wording and vocabulary around this topic is also being refined to be more obvious what the date refers to. Historically the best before date has been adapted for widespread use in the 1970s for marketing purposes rather than safety. During those times freshness was the biggest selling point for most food and having a quicker best before date gave the illusion of being fresher and "pesticide free". This has had the additional effect of creating artificial scarcity and raising prices for food. But its not all good, people argue that removing the labels shift the responsibility onto the consumer. Consumers come in different shapes and sizes which is to mean not everyone is well versed in knowing what the spoiled version of every food looks like. Critics argue this shifts the burden of judgment onto the shopper and stores may feel less pressure to pull questionable stock if customers are the ones expected to catch it. The other major argument against it is that the changes are very hard to futureproof against food categorization rules and packaging methods therefore posing a safety risk. They care more about peoples health than the planet and therefore they argue against the changes. It is quite understandable that products such as meat and dairy are usually removed from the removing of the dates due to their relevant spoilage are harder and sometimes impossible to spot by senses alone. But this opens up the argument for stricter food categorization which i will not go into right now. In conclusion, i give the current state of best before dates 5 rotten apples out of 10 salmonella ridden sausages. They serve their purpose but people are not sufficiently aware of their purpose which causes additional food waste and in turn their purpose is altered and twisted into something else. The future version of it is something i will wait with reasonable suspicion before reviewing but the current version is an outdated mess that needs a hotfix immediately with a planned rework sooner than later.