Everything you need to know about expiry dates

Many of us get confused by the dates printed on our food packaging. Some of us wouldn’t touch food even a day past the date listed, while others are comfortable to eat food well after.

Knowing the difference between ‘use by’ and ‘best before’ is important in reducing food waste. So what do they mean? Use by is an instruction and refers to the safety of the food. You should not eat food after its use by date. Comparatively, a best before date is a guideline which refers to the quality of the food. It is safe to eat food after its best before date, providing you use your senses to check that it is okay.

Dairy products are a food group where Kiwis can be overly cautious when it comes to expiry dates. This results in us throwing away 8,426 tonnes of dairy products every year.

Helpfully, dairy products are likely to show signs of spoiling, so it should be easy to know when they have gone off. Use your senses to check for lumps in your milk, a sour smell, unusual texture or mould growth. If any of these signs are present, discard the product.

Fruit Yoghurt Pizza

This yoghurt pizza is a fun way to use up yoghurt which is getting passed its best. You can use any sort of yoghurt.

Ingredients

• 150g yoghurt (use any flavour you would like – 150g is equivalent to one small pottle)
• 1 cup self-raising flour (about 1.5 pottles of flour) + extra for rolling
• 1/2 cup custard or jam
• Your choice of toppings: Coconut, chocolate chips, berries, banana, sliced apple or other fruit, cinnamon, marshmallows, Nutella, peanut butter etc

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C.
2. Empty the yoghurt into a medium-sized bowl. Using the yoghurt pottle as a measuring cup, tip one and a half pottles of self-raising flour into the yoghurt.
3. Mix the yoghurt and flour well until it forms a ball.
4. Turn the mixture out onto a clean, floured surface and knead for 5 minutes until the dough feels elastic. Add flour to the surface as needed to keep the dough from sticking.
5. Roll out dough to half a centimetre thickness and place the base on a baking tray.
6. Spread the custard or jam over the base and then add your toppings.
7. Bake in oven until the base is cooked (approximately 20 – 30 minutes depending on your oven).