Here’s a bit from the National Restaurant Association site about food insecurity, hunger and date codes:

…restaurant chains and supermarkets including Wegman’s, Publix, Kroger and Safeway are working on programs to cut waste and get surplus food to those in need, and a report issued last year by the Natural Resources Defense Council and Harvard Law School’s Food Law and Policy Clinic may help make it a bit easier.

The report found that more than 90% of Americans throw out food before it goes bad, largely because of confusion over “best by,” “sell by” and “use by” labels. The labels vary from state to state, store to store and brand to brand, with most designed to denote peak freshness and not food safety — food kept at proper temperatures can remain safe and nutritious far past those dates, while food not stored properly can go bad well before the date on the package, the report points out. Meanwhile, many if not most consumers see the dates as a deadline, after which the food must be tossed.

The authors call for a standardized system that makes “sell by” dates invisible to the consumer and clearly differentiates between dates meant to denote peak freshness and those meant to ensure food safety. Resources like FMI’s Foodkeeper Guide and USDA’s Kitchen Companion Safe Food Handbook consumers solid information on looking past the dates to determine whether food is safe to eat.