Date codes on food and beverage packages continue to be a source of confusion for consumers as they try to balance minimizing product waste with safe consumption. There are many ways to explain when your product should be used by but a recent Packaging Digest survey revealed which phrase you prefer to use.

The vast majority (91%) of food and beverage companies answering our poll currently print a date code on their product packaging. For the 9% that don’t, the reasons varied, from “Our product is direct retail for immediate consumption today” and “Very high product turnover rate. We do use batch coding for QC” to “Not needed” and “Our products are ‘thaw then sell.’ Date codes are applied at store level.”

A couple respondents admitted that packaging department hold-ups were at fault: “Don't have coding machine” and “Still figuring packaging out.”

When we asked which phrase was preferred to use, “Best by” won out at 59%. Surprisingly, the next highest option was “Other” at 19%.