Why condiments expiry date is rounded?

Question

Many condiments such as katchup, mayonnaise and mustard (where I live at least) seem to love rounding all of their expiry dates to "60 days after opened".

Thing is, I never see any difference after the date, at least with mustard. It's easy to consume katchup or mayo under a couple of months, but I only like mustard for very few things, so I have some black mustard from ~3-4 months that tastes just as good.

What is weird to me is that they round the expiry dates. Are they just lazy and think "nah, nobody takes more than two months and it should last that long"?

Asked by Camilo Martin

Answer

Food quality isn't binary; it doesn't go from perfectly good to perfectly bad in an instant. Even if it did, the time it would take depends on the storage temperature. And for non-liquid foods, it's possible that only a part went bad (how well does it mix?).

So, you don't get a precise date, but a rough interval at which time the decay starts to set in. As a result, the manufacturer will just pick a rounded date from that interval.

Example: the engineers might calculate that under reasonable circumstances, the product may start to noticably deteriorate after 52-75 days, and become dangerous after 81-112 days. They manufacturer could then say that the expiry date would be 60 days.

(The other answers explain why you'd use the first interval, but not why they're actually intervals.)

Answered by MSalters

Check more discussion of this question.

What is the difference between whole grain mustard and regular yellow mustard?

Question

Is there any taste differences between whole grain mustard and regular yellow mustard?

Is the difference primarily in terms of texture and composition of each mustard?

Also, could each be used interchangeably?

Answer

Yes, there is (generally) a significant taste difference between whole grain mustard and regular yellow mustard. Texture plays a part of it, but it is secondary to the overall difference in flavor.

I say generally because there's a lot of variation in each, and some extremes of one type may approach some extremes of the other type in flavor.

Yellow mustard is usually very mild, and vinegar plays a very strong role in the flavor.

Whole grain mustard is usually stronger than yellow, and the vinegar flavor is much less pronounced, if not altogether absent.

In many situations, one type can usually be substituted for the other, although it is a matter of personal preference, and many people will argue that some uses of mustard are appropriate for one type, but not the other (for example, I would never use yellow mustard as a condiment for cheese and crackers, but I would use a whole grain mustard for some types of cheese).

Check more discussion of this question.