Requirements for food labels

2.1. Examples: date information on food products

• "Best Before" or " Best if Used By" date indicates until when a product will be of best flavor or quality.  It is not a purchase or safety date. Even after the date it will be safe to consume for some time.

• "Sell-By" date tells the store how long to display the product for sale for inventory management.  It is not a safety date.
  

• “Use-By" or “Expiry date” or "EXP" is the date after which the food will not have the quality and safety attributes normally expected by the consumers and the food shall not be sold or consumed.

• "Date of manufacture” or "Manufacturing Date" or "Mfg. Date" or "Mfd." or even "PROD" means the date on which the food product was produced. In some cases the consumer must calculate the expiry date.
  

• “Date of packaging” means the date on which the food is placed in the retail packaging. This can be different from date of manufacture, if the product is first stored in bulk packaging and only repackaged before shipping or sale.