Apparently, you might be throwing away perfectly good food. Researchers found more than 50 different date labels are used across the U.S., which helps explain why it’s so confusing. Experts say foods like canned goods, crackers, cookies, and cereal can often last well beyond the printed date if they’re stored properly. It’s gotten so bad that California just became the first state to standardize food labels, requiring “Best If Used By” for quality and “Use By” for safety. Most of this advice is for shelf-stable foods… Obviously you’ll need to be a lot more careful with meat, chicken, and fish.