Why condiments expiry date is rounded?

Why condiments expiry date is rounded? - Person Holding Brown Leather Bifold Wallet

Many condiments such as katchup, mayonnaise and mustard (where I live at least) seem to love rounding all of their expiry dates to "60 days after opened".

Thing is, I never see any difference after the date, at least with mustard. It's easy to consume katchup or mayo under a couple of months, but I only like mustard for very few things, so I have some black mustard from ~3-4 months that tastes just as good.

What is weird to me is that they round the expiry dates. Are they just lazy and think "nah, nobody takes more than two months and it should last that long"?



Best Answer

Food quality isn't binary; it doesn't go from perfectly good to perfectly bad in an instant. Even if it did, the time it would take depends on the storage temperature. And for non-liquid foods, it's possible that only a part went bad (how well does it mix?).

So, you don't get a precise date, but a rough interval at which time the decay starts to set in. As a result, the manufacturer will just pick a rounded date from that interval.

Example: the engineers might calculate that under reasonable circumstances, the product may start to noticably deteriorate after 52-75 days, and become dangerous after 81-112 days. They manufacturer could then say that the expiry date would be 60 days.

(The other answers explain why you'd use the first interval, but not why they're actually intervals.)

:edit:

The likely reason why they're all the same 60 days is probably also engineering. How much preservative do they use? As noted in the comments, the primary preservatives are the acids, but you need quite some sugar to compensate. It seems 60 days is a commonly accepted balance.




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How is the expiry date of a product determined?

There's no blanket process for setting expiration dates. Instead, food manufacturers and retailers determine these dates as they see fit. They may take many factors into consideration. They'll think about the characteristics of the particular food as well as its packaging.

How are expiry dates printed?

Ink stamps that are used for marking expiration dates typically consist of a number of bands printed with either numbers or a combination of numbers and letters to represent the date.

Is best by date same as expiration?

What's the difference between 'best before' date and expiry date? Expiration dates tell consumers the last day a product is safe to consume. Best before date on the other hand tells you that the food is no longer in its perfect shape from that date. It may just lose its freshness, taste, aroma or nutrients.

What is a food expiration date?

Understanding Food Expiration Dates The dates you see on food labels are not usually related to food spoilage. Instead, the dates tell you how long food maintains the best taste and texture. Federal law does not require food quality dates except on infant formula.\u200c You may see different wording on product labels.



Expired Condiments at Grandma's




More answers regarding why condiments expiry date is rounded?

Answer 2

I'm not sure what the consumer liability laws are like in Brazil, but I expect that they 'good until' dates well short of their 'actual' lifespan to protect the manufacturers from lawsuits for people who don't read the labels anyway and get sick on 3 year old mayo...

A second reason they set short shelf life for such things is to encourage you to buy it more often, thus more money for the manufacturer.

Answer 3

Expiration dates for safety are not about "usually okay". Sure, if you keep mustard in good conditions, it'll probably last longer than that most of the time. But things are labeled with expiration dates that are designed to guarantee that everyone will be safe. Yes, that means that most of the time they're overly conservative. But the alternative is to let people get sick, or even die. It's a big world; if even one in a million bottles goes bad after 60 days, that's a big deal.

Answer 4

If by "round" you mean 60 days as opposed to say 58 for some things, and 63 for others, it has to do with the perceived accuracy of numbers. If you read "keeps for 53 days after opening" you might feel it has gone bad after 54 days. But with 60, it's a round number, you realize that there's essentially no different betweeen 59 day old ketchup and 61 day old ketchup. When you find a 90-day-old bottle at the back of the cupboard, maybe you decide you'll toss it because it's so far past 60 days. If you're wondering why so many products have exactly the same shelf life, I think the manufacturers tweak the formula - who would buy a jar of mustard that went bad in just few days? It needs to last about as long as it takes people to use up the jar or bottle.

Me, I keep my ketchup in the cupboard (in Canada, the large bottles say refrigerate after opening and the small ones don't) and keep it for months and months - maybe even a year. No worries. But my chef-daughter announces that a product (eg a carton of milk) "goes bad" on it's expiry date, and refuses to consume anything on or after its date.

Answer 5

The manufacturer has to test that the expiration date is valid and each tested point has some cost associated with it. Lets say they test with 100 containers at 60 days, testing an additional 100 containers at 61 days has significant incremental cost but very little incremental value.

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