sell-by date

Hi,

a) a sell-by date I'm not familiar with this. I guess it would be a date marked on a product, after which the store should take it off the shelf and no longer sell it.


b) the / a (?) best-by date The date marked on a product to indicate when it will be past its best condition. eg on a milk carton,I suppose.

Yes they are kind of adjectives.

"Sell-by date" comes from "They can sell the food by the date XX".
"Best-by date" comes from "The food will taste best by the date XX"
"Expiry" is originally a noun meaning "time limit"

paco

Yes; it's a kind of embedded imperative: a "sell (this) by" date. (On the product itself, it says something like "Sell by: 00/00/00".)

On packaged edible goods in British shops and supermarkets, you usually have 2 dates: the "sell by" and the "use by" or "best by" dates.

MrP

Paco, I see you're getting ready for Xmas? You look so nice dressed as Santa! (what will you do for Easter?) [F]

Hello Pieanne

As you know well, this Paco dog is a lazybones. He'll be Santa till coming Easter.

paco

And then ...

Hi Paco2004,

A quick question. " The food will taste best by the date 11/11/05". To me, this sentence makes an impression that the food will taste bad before and after 11/11/05. Instead shall we say, "The food will taste best until 11/11/05"?

Thanks in advance,

Hello Krish

I admire your linguistic sensibility. Yes you are quite right. I made "The food tastes best by X" to explain the meaning of "best by", but indeed it sounds weird. Because "something tastes best" is a stative event, the time-anchor word should be "till". "Event till X" means the event continues till X. It should be "The food tastes best till X"

I think the phrase "best

Thanks Paco2004. I learned the usage of 'until' and 'till'.

Maybe:

[It is] Best [used] by:

MrP