Best Before vs Use By: What South African Food Law Actually Says About Date Marking

By Mthokozisi Nkosi, Food Safety & Regulatory Consultant, ASC Food Safety

Date marking has become one of the most debated topics in South African food policy in 2026, and for good reason. Commentators are calling for reform because the numbers are hard to look at: South Africa wastes roughly a third of its food while most households face some degree of food insecurity. A meaningful share of that waste is driven not by spoiled food but by confusion, because shoppers, retailers and even donors routinely treat a quality date as a safety date and bin perfectly good food.

The confusion is understandable. “Best before”, “use by” and “sell by” look interchangeable on a shelf, but in law they mean very different things. In our advisory and expert-report work on date marking and expired food risk, we see the full cost of that misunderstanding. This guide sets out what the date marking regulations in South Africa actually say, what they do not say, and how to make your own date marking defensible.

The three date types under R146

Date marking on South African food labels is governed by R146 of 2010, made under the Foodstuffs, Cosmetics and Disinfectants Act 54 of 1972. The regulations recognise distinct date types, and the distinction is the whole point:

Best before: a quality promise

The best before date marks the end of the period during which the product, properly stored, keeps its full expected quality: taste, texture, aroma, colour, nutritional character. After that date a biscuit may soften and a juice may dull, but the food is not presumed dangerous. Best before is the manufacturer saying “this is when I stop promising the product at its best”, not “this is when it becomes a hazard”.

Use by: a safety line for perishables

The use by date is reserved for perishable foods that, microbiologically, can become a direct danger to health after a short period: fresh ready-to-eat meals, certain chilled meats and dairy products. After the use by date, the product should be regarded as unsafe to consume, regardless of how it looks or smells, because the pathogens that matter most do not announce themselves. This is the date that must never be treated casually.

Sell by: a stock rotation tool

A sell by date is directed at the retailer, not the consumer: it supports stock rotation and is not a statement that the food is unfit the day after. It adds to consumer confusion because shoppers read it as an expiry date when it was never designed as one.

What manufacturers must print, and the mistakes we see

The manufacturer’s obligations are practical: choose the correct date type for the product’s risk profile, print it legibly in the prescribed manner, and pair it with the storage instructions on which the date depends. A use by date validated at 4°C means nothing if the label never says refrigerate. The recurring mistakes in our label reviews:

• The wrong date type. A use by date on a shelf-stable product (creating needless waste), or worse, a best before date on a genuinely perishable ready-to-eat product (creating real risk).
• Ambiguous formats. Dates that could read as day/month or month/day, missing years, or codes only the factory can decode. A date the consumer cannot interpret fails at its only job.
• Dates divorced from storage instructions. The date and the storage conditions are one system; printing one without the other breaks it.
• Unvalidated dates. Shelf life copied from a similar product or set by commercial preference rather than evidence. This is the mistake that becomes indefensible the day something goes wrong.

Can food be sold or donated past its best before date?

This is the question at the heart of the current debate. Because best before is a quality marker and not a safety cut-off, food past its best before date is not automatically unsellable. Discount retailers and food redistribution organisations operate in exactly this space, and done responsibly, that activity keeps safe food out of landfill in a country that cannot afford the waste.

But “not automatically unlawful” is not “risk-free”, and this is where caution belongs:

• The seller or donor takes on the judgement call that the food remains safe and of acceptable quality, and that judgement should rest on product knowledge and storage history, not optimism.
• The consumer must never be misled. Obscuring, altering or re-marking dates is the kind of conduct that turns a defensible practice into an offence.
• Anything with a use by date is off the table once that date has passed. No donation motive makes an unsafe perishable safe.

Retailers and consumers compound the problem from the other direction: treating every date as a safety date. Institutions discard compliant stock the morning a best before date arrives; households bin food that is perfectly sound. Multiplied across the country, that behaviour is a measurable share of the food waste problem, driven purely by misreading two words.

The reform conversation, and what draft R3337 signals

The 2026 debate is pushing in a clear direction: simpler, clearer date marking that separates safety from quality in the consumer’s mind, alongside frameworks that make responsible surplus food redistribution easier rather than legally murky. South Africa is not alone; the same reform conversation is running in several jurisdictions for the same food waste reasons.

On the regulatory side, draft R3337 (published for comment in late 2023 and intended to replace R146) signals the Department of Health’s appetite for a stricter, more consumer-protective labelling regime overall. It has not been finalised and is not in force; R146 remains the law today. But the direction of travel is toward labels that carry more information, more clearly, with less ambiguity, and date marking will be read in that light. Manufacturers reviewing artwork now should treat clearer date marking as a cheap upgrade ahead of whatever the final regulations require.

The liability angle: the date is not a shield

Here is the point businesses most often miss. The Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 imposes liability for harm caused by unsafe or defective goods, and that liability does not evaporate because a date was printed on the pack. A product that makes someone ill before its use by date exposes the manufacturer whose shelf life was never properly validated, and a retailer who sells visibly compromised stock inside its best before window is not protected by the date either. Conversely, in disputes over allegedly expired food, the printed date alone rarely settles whether the food was actually unsafe; that is a scientific question about the product, its storage and its condition.

This is precisely where ASC’s expert work sits. We prepare independent expert reports to evidentiary standard on date marking and expired food risk for regulators, institutions and legal matters: reports that quote the relevant regulation verbatim at the point of reference and assess the actual risk the food posed, not just the ink on the label. If you face a dispute, an enforcement query or an insurance matter turning on a date mark, see our Expert Reports & Regulatory Defence service.

Setting shelf life properly: the manufacturer’s checklist

For manufacturers, the defensible path is straightforward:

1. Base the date on evidence. Run stability studies under the storage conditions you will print: microbiological, chemical and sensory, over the full intended life plus a margin.
2. Choose the date type by risk, not by habit. Perishables that can become dangerous get a use by date; quality-limited products get a best before date.
3. Validate, then re-validate. Any change to formulation, packaging, process or supply chain can change the shelf life. Re-test after every meaningful change.
4. Keep the file. Study reports, sampling plans, acceptance criteria. If a date is ever challenged, this file is the difference between a defensible position and an opinion.
5. Print it clearly. Unambiguous format, legible size, paired with storage instructions, in line with R146.

Our consultants review date marking as part of every full label compliance assessment under our Labelling & Regulatory Advisory service, and your quality and NPD teams can build the underlying skills through our accredited online courses at ascfoodsafetytraining.com.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between best before and use by in South Africa?

Under R146 of 2010, a best before date marks how long a properly stored product keeps its full quality, while a use by date marks the point after which a perishable food should be considered unsafe to eat. Best before is about quality; use by is about safety.

Is it illegal to sell food past its best before date in South Africa?

Not automatically, because best before is a quality marker rather than a safety cut-off. However, the seller must be satisfied the food is still safe and of acceptable quality, must not mislead the consumer, and remains exposed under the Consumer Protection Act if the food causes harm. Food past a use by date should never be sold.

Can food past its best before date be donated?

Responsible donation of quality-dated food is part of how safe surplus food is kept out of landfill, but the same cautions apply: sound judgement about the product’s condition and storage history, honest disclosure, and never donating perishables past a use by date.

How should a manufacturer decide between a best before and a use by date?

By risk, supported by evidence. Perishable foods that can become microbiologically dangerous within a short period need a use by date; foods that merely decline in quality carry a best before date. The decision should rest on stability studies and shelf life validation, not on what similar products print.

Does a printed date protect a business from liability?

No. The Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 imposes liability for unsafe goods regardless of the printed date. What protects a business is a properly validated shelf life, the evidence file behind it, and honest handling of stock. In disputes, independent expert assessment of the actual food risk carries more weight than the date alone.

By Mthokozisi Nkosi, Food Safety & Regulatory Consultant, ASC Food Safety. ASC advises leading pharmaceutical and FMCG brands on labelling, date marking and shelf life strategy from Gqeberha, Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban, with nationwide virtual support.