how do you work out a 'use by date' on food

[meredith101]

If it's been frozen?
I buy milk, it has 5 days before 'use by', I freeze it. When I defrost it, do I have 5 days to use it?

[redcrx]

use it until it starts to go off. Sometimes milk goes off before its use by date and some is still ok to use after so i never stick to the use by dates.

[ethandron]

i'm the same, the sniff test always works for me. with food too, if it'snot mouldy or smelly then it get's used. i think we've all become a bit over anxious about use-by dates.

[TTG]

I thought food goes off quickly once thawed and you only have say half the time to eat it when compared to leaving it out of the freezer.