Dollars & Sense: Decoding expiration food date labels

Here’s the first thing to understand: most food date labels are about quality, not safety. Manufacturers use many of these dates to tell you when a product is expected to have its best flavor, texture or freshness. Consumers, however, often assume the date means the food has become dangerous. Manufacturers care about quality. Consumers care about safety. Those are two very different things. And can the average shopper really tell the difference?