When Whitehall-Coplay Hunger Initiative gives out food at our pantry distributions, children’s summer feeding program and the Snack Pack Pals program, many of the food items are past their expiration or best buy dates.

Guests and parents have returned the food or thrown them out thinking they are not good anymore. Let me explain how food banks and food pantries operate.

Most of this information comes from Second Harvest Food Bank.

Food manufacturers use different date codes to ensure consumers receive their product at peak quality.

There are four ways products are code dated:

• The sell-by date tells the store how long to display the product for sale.

• “Best if used by” is recommended for best flavor or quality. This is not a purchase or safety date.

• “Use by” is the last date recommended for use of the product while at peak quality. The manufacturer of the product has determined the date.

• “Exp.” or “Expires” is a true expiration date. The food is not safe to eat and must be thrown away.

Once a product is past the code date, many manufacturers and local grocery stores donate the food products to food banks, such as Second Harvest. In most cases, this food is still safe to eat!

Second Harvest then provides food items to its member pantries, such as WCHI.

Note: Second Harvest also purchases food monthly that has future expiration dates. Not all the food Second Harvest supplies to pantries is past the food manufacturer’s expiration date.

Now, let’s discuss how long food is good to eat with these dates.

This is all from Second Harvest and tells you how long a product still can be consumed - if unopened - after the coded dates.

• Unopened canned goods with low acid such as meat, poultry, fish, gravy, stew, soups, beans, carrots, corn, pasta, peas, potatoes and spinach are good two to five years after the “use buy” date.

• Unopened canned goods with high acid such as juices, fruit, pickles, sauerkraut, tomato soup and foods in vinegar-based sauce are good for 12 to 18 months.

• Ready-to-eat cereal, six to 12 months

• Oatmeal, 12 months

• Most baking ingredients: white flour, cornstarch, canned frosting mixes, chocolate, six to 18 months

• Commercial mayonnaise, three months

• Condiments and commercial dressings, 12 months

• Packaged cookies, two months

• Crackers, eight months

• Juice boxes, four to six months

• Peanut butter, six to nine months

• Instant potatoes, six to 12 months

• White or wild rice, two years

• Brown rice, one year

Many shelf-stable foods remain edible for several weeks or months after opening. However, be sure to read package labels.

All baby food and formula must be thrown out by the expiration date. There is no nutritional value after this date. WCHI monitors these dates, and our pantry guests do not receive outdated baby food. Baby food recipients need to monitor these dates when the baby food is in your home pantry.

I hope you found this article interesting and informative. Have a great week!