In the UK, a best before date is about quality and a use by date is about safety. Best before tells you how long a food will be at its best; after it, the food is usually still fine to eat, it is simply not at its peak. Use by appears on foods that go off quickly, and it is a hard line: do not eat food after its use by date, even if it looks and smells perfectly good.
Every Sandy Leaf Farm food kit carries a best before date, printed on the outer box, because a box of dried botanicals, spices, cures and cultures is a store cupboard product rather than a perishable one. The fresh things you add to make the recipe, the milk, the pork belly, the lean beef, the lamb, are the items that carry use by dates, and those are the ones to treat strictly.
What does best before actually mean?
It is a manufacturer's judgement about quality. Up to that date, everything in the pack should perform the way it was designed to: the spices should taste as intended, the dried ingredients should behave predictably, the whole thing should work.
After the date, quality declines rather than the food becoming unsafe. That decline is gradual, not sudden, and it is why so much perfectly good food gets thrown away every year on the strength of a number that was never a safety warning in the first place.
Best before dates appear on dried, tinned, frozen and long-life goods: the pasta, rice, spices and flour in most kitchens. The date only holds while the pack is unopened and stored as the label says, which for our kits means at room temperature, somewhere dry and away from direct sunlight.
What does use by mean, and where will you meet it?
Use by is the safety date, and it goes on foods that can become unsafe quickly: fresh meat and fish, fresh dairy, chilled ready meals, prepared salads. The risk with these foods is that harmful bacteria can multiply without changing the smell, look or taste, which is exactly why you cannot judge them by eye.
The rules of thumb are simple. Do not eat, cook or freeze anything after its use by date. Follow the storage instructions on the pack, because the date assumes them. And if you want to extend the life of something, freeze it before the date rather than after.
You will meet use by dates constantly while using our kits, because that is what is printed on the milk for the cheese recipes, the pork belly for the bacon, the lean beef for jerky and biltong and the lamb for the kebabs. Buy those fresh, close to the day you plan to cook.
Why do kits get a best before date rather than a use by?
Because of what is in the box. A kit holds dried botanicals, whole and ground spices, dried chillies, dried herbs, salts, sugars, acids, tapioca starch, loose leaf tea, dried yeast, rennet and curing salts. None of those is a perishable food in the sense that milk or raw meat is. There is no moisture for bacteria to work with, and nothing that needs refrigeration.
The kits keep for 18 months from packing, with the cheese kits at 24 months. We aim for every kit to leave us with at least 12 months still to run on its date, so there is plenty of time to get around to it. The Cheese Mould Kit has no date at all, because reusable moulds and muslin cannot go off, and neither does the Kintsugi Kit, which is a craft kit rather than a food product.
So what really happens if a kit passes its date?
It depends on what the ingredient is there to do, and our kits split into two groups.
- Flavour-led kits, such as gin, spiced rum, colour changing gin, chilli sauce, kebab, jerky, biltong, bacon, kimchi and bubble tea, rely on dried ingredients giving up flavour. Past the date they simply taste less punchy. Steep for longer, season more generously, brew a little stronger, and the difference largely disappears.
- Kits with active ingredients are the exception. The wine yeast in our hedgerow wine kit and the rennet in our cheese kits are doing biological work, and past the date they may stop working reliably. Wine that will not ferment and milk that will not set are real failures, not gentle ones, so use those kits before the date.
That distinction is the practical heart of the whole question. Best before is not one rule applied to every box; it is a quality date whose consequences depend entirely on what the ingredient was hired to do.
What about sell by and display until?
Those are shop labels, put there for stock rotation rather than for you. They are not safety information and they are not quality information, and you can ignore them entirely once the food is in your kitchen. The two dates that matter to a household are best before and use by.
One more habit worth having: once you open a pack, the printed date is only half the story. Storage takes over. Reseal opened sachets, keep them cool and dry, keep them out of direct sunlight, and label anything you decant into a bag or tub so you know what it is and roughly how old it is.
Best before and use by FAQs
What is the difference between best before and use by?
Best before is about quality and use by is about safety. Food is often still fine after its best before date, but it should never be eaten after its use by date.
Which date do food kits carry?
Best before, printed on the outer box. Kits are made up of dried, shelf-stable ingredients rather than perishable ones, so a quality date is the right one for them.
Can I use a kit after its best before date?
Usually yes, with a gentler flavour, because quality declines rather than the kit becoming unsafe. The exceptions are the wine kit and the cheese kits, whose yeast and rennet may stop working reliably.
Do the fresh ingredients I add have use by dates?
Yes, and those should be followed strictly. Milk, pork belly, lean beef and lamb all carry use by dates, and nothing should be eaten, cooked or frozen after one.
What does sell by or display until mean?
They are stock rotation labels for the shop rather than advice for you. Only best before and use by matter once the food is in your kitchen.
Wondering which project to start? Have a browse of all our make your own kits.
