My wife will never agree, but the British government says sell-by dates on food are useless and confusing… and costly. (They actually said this in September, 2011, but this is from a tab recently culled.) “The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) says five million tonnes of edible food is discarded by UK households annually – the equivalent of £680 for a household with children.” But also, “Food writer Rose Prince told Today she doubted the science employed by manufacturers to set use-by dates and said perishables such as eggs and yoghurt could often last much longer.”