Best Before vs Use By: What Dates Mean on Daal, Rice and Atta

You find a 1 kg bag of toor daal at the back of the cupboard. The "best before" date was three months ago. Do you bin it, or cook it? Then you spot a tub of fresh paneer and a "use by" tomorrow. These dates look similar and mean different things. Knowing the difference between best before vs use by saves good food, and it stops you taking a risk where it matters.

Two dates, two meanings

Best before is about quality. After the date the food may be less crisp, less fragrant or less fresh, but it is not suddenly unsafe when it has been stored properly.

Use by is about safety. It appears on foods that can spoil dangerously, such as fresh meat, fish and some dairy. Do not eat them after it.

This is the general approach used by food-safety agencies in the UK and US, though labelling rules differ between countries, and in the US most date labels are not federally required.

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Which staples fall where

Daal: past the date, but still fine?

Dried lentils are low-moisture food. Past their date, the common problem is age: very old daal can take much longer to soften and may never go creamy. Our old lentils and hard water post explains why, and the storing daal guide shows how to tell old from fresh.

The recipes on this site assume reasonably fresh lentils. Dal tadka pressure-cooks 150 g (5.3 oz) each of moong and masoor for about 15 minutes, or simmers for 30 to 35 minutes in an open pot. If your older daal takes noticeably longer than that, you now know why. Masoor daal is the quickest to soften and the most forgiving.

Do not cook daal that smells musty or sour, is damp or clumped, or has webbing or live insects. That is spoilage or infestation, not age.

Rice and atta

Rice keeps well when dry and sealed. Flour is the one to watch: its natural oils turn stale, and bugs get in. Our atta storage guide covers containers and the smell test. If a bag smells sour, bitter or like old paint, bin it, whatever the date says.

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Dried beans and chickpeas

Old chickpeas and kidney beans are another case of "safe but stubborn". Chana masala calls for soaking dried chickpeas for 8 hours or overnight and boiling for 45 to 60 minutes (10 to 12 in a pressure cooker). Very old beans may need a lot more. Kidney beans must be boiled thoroughly, which the recipe covers; see dal makhani, where the soaked black lentils and kidney beans are pressure-cooked for about 40 minutes.

Cooked food is another story

The date on the packet stops mattering once you cook. Then the clock is yours. Standard guidance: cool cooked rice within about an hour, keep it in the fridge for no more than a day, and reheat leftovers until steaming hot. Chicken must reach 74 C (165 F) and mince 71 C (160 F) when cooked. Our cooling and reheating post walks through it.

A two-minute check before you cook with old stock

1. Sniff. Fresh smells of the food. Musty, sour, oily or chemical is a no.
2. Look. Moths, webbing, tiny holes, clumps, dark spots, mould.
3. Feel. Damp, sticky or caked means moisture got in.
4. Taste a tiny amount only if sight and smell are fine, and spit it out if it tastes flat or bitter.
5. Decide. Quality issue? Use it up in a strongly spiced dish. Safety doubt? Bin it.

What to do with stock that is merely old

• Use it up first in dishes with strong flavour, such as a loaded dal tadka or a heavy masala.
• Put a note on the front of the shelf: "use this week".
• Do not mix old and new in the same jar, or you cannot tell which is which.
• Write the purchase month on a strip of tape when you open a pack.

The shelf habit that prevents this

A ten-minute pass through the cupboard once a month, using our weekly pantry reset or the spice shelf audit, costs less than throwing out a full bag. In an app like Degchi, you can mark things as Have, Low or Out, which makes forgotten bags easier to spot.

Mistake list

• Throwing out a sealed packet of daal because the date passed last week.
• Keeping chicken or fish past a use by date because "it smells fine".
• Pouring new rice on top of old in the same container.
• Ignoring a flour bag that smells off because it is "only a bit".