Expiry Date vs Best Before in Ghana: What food labels mean and what you must do

Josephine Amuzu 11:43 - 21 August 2026

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A shopper carefully checks the date labels on yogurt tubs in a local supermarket.

Learn the difference between expiry date and best before on food labels in Ghana. Find out what food safety rules mean for consumers and traders.

Expired beverages and food products were confiscated and destroyed during an inspection exercise.
Consumers should pay attention to dates, storage instructions, packaging and batch numbers.
Shoppers are encouraged to report suspected expired or unsafe food products to the relevant authorities.

A recent exercise in the Tatale Sanguli District of the Northern Region has brought an everyday food-safety question into focus: Do you really know what the dates printed on your food products mean?

The Environmental and Sanitation Unit of the district recently confiscated and destroyed expired beverages and other food products found in shops and stores across the district.

The exercise was carried out as part of efforts to protect consumers and ensure that food products sold to the public meet required health and safety standards.

Officials inspected several shops and storage facilities and removed expired products from circulation.

While the exercise serves as a reminder to traders to check the dates on products before putting them on sale, it also raises an important question for shoppers: What exactly is the difference between an expiry date and a best-before date?

For consumers, understanding food labels is one part of making informed choices. But the date is not the only thing that matters.

Expiry date

An expiry date indicates the point after which a product should no longer be used or consumed, according to the applicable product and food-safety requirements.

Best before

A best-before date generally relates to the period during which a product is expected to retain its intended quality when it has been stored according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Expiry date vs best before: Are they the same?

Not necessarily. such as “expiry”, “use by” and “best before” appear on different food products, and consumers should not automatically treat them as interchangeable.

The exact meaning of each term depends on how it is defined and used on the product, which is why the guidance of Ghana's Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) is important when interpreting food labels.

Rather than relying on assumptions or advice shared on social media, consumers should pay attention to the information provided on the product and follow the relevant storage and handling instructions.

Checking the date should be one of the first things you do when buying packaged food, but it should not be the only check.

Take a moment to examine the packaging. Look at whether the package is properly sealed and whether there is any visible damage. Also check the product's storage instructions and make sure it has been stored as required.

For example, if a product comes with specific storage instructions, those instructions form part of the information consumers should consider when deciding whether to purchase or use it.

Check the batch number too. The batch or lot number can also be important.

Consumers may not always pay attention to it, but keeping this information can be useful if there is a problem with a particular product.

If you ever need to report a concern, having the product name, date information and batch number can help identify the particular product involved.

Can you tell if food is unsafe by smelling it?

This is where consumers need to be careful. A food product may look or smell normal, but that alone does not establish that it is safe to consume.

Likewise, a change in appearance or smell may raise a concern, but consumers should not rely on their senses as the only way of determining food safety. This is why food-safety decisions should not be reduced to simply asking, “Does it smell okay?”

When there is a genuine concern about a food product, consumers should seek guidance from the appropriate authorities rather than trying to determine its safety themselves.

What should you do if you find a suspicious product?

If you come across a food product that you suspect may be unsafe, avoid simply ignoring it or assuming that somebody else will report it.

Take note of important information on the product, including:

The name of the product
The manufacturer, where available
The expiry or best-before information
The batch or lot number
Where you bought it
Any concerns about the packaging or storage

Consumers can then report suspected unsafe food products or inappropriate food-handling practices to the relevant authorities for investigation.

The FDA is the key national authority for food safety, while district-level environmental health and sanitation authorities also play a role in monitoring food products within their jurisdictions.

Eexpired beverages and other food products discovered in shops and stores across the Tatale Sanguli district.

In Tatale Sanguli, officials inspected shops and storage facilities and confiscated expired beverages and other food products. The products were subsequently destroyed as part of the enforcement exercise.

Head of the Environmental and Sanitation Unit, Nasigri Abukari, said the exercise was primarily aimed at protecting public health.

Public health is our major concern and as practitioners we are to ensure that people consume wholesome food from the market, he said.

Mr Abukari also warned traders and shop owners against selling expired products. He said the district authorities would take action against traders found selling expired goods.

We are serving a notice to everybody within the district that we are coming and once we find you selling expired products, we will ensure the law comes after you, he said.

The authorities have therefore urged traders to regularly check the dates of products in their shops and storage facilities and ensure that expired items are not offered for sale.

Residents have also been encouraged to report traders suspected of selling expired or unsafe food products.

What should traders check?

Regularly check the dates of products.

The responsibility for food safety does not rest with consumers alone. Traders and shop owners should regularly inspect the products they have in stock rather than waiting for an enforcement exercise.

They should pay attention to:

Product dates
Storage conditions
Packaging condition
Batch or lot information
Whether products are still suitable for sale

Expired products should not be offered to consumers.

And if you suspect that a product is unsafe, report it rather than simply passing the problem on to another consumer.

Food safety is a shared responsibility. The Tatale Sanguli exercise is a reminder that food safety involves more than checking a date after a product has already reached the kitchen.

Traders have a responsibility to ensure that products offered for sale are appropriate for consumers, while shoppers also need to pay attention to labels, storage information and the condition of products they buy.

For authorities, continued market inspections and public education remain important in keeping unsafe products out of circulation.

Ultimately, knowing how to read the information on food packaging can help consumers make more informed choices and knowing where to report a concern can help authorities respond when something goes wrong.