Best Before?

When I was a kid, the milk container said "expires" on the top tab. These days that label says "best before." Food still expires, yet no longer do we market when that will happen. So here's my question - a taboo for So Cal folks - If something is "best" before a certain date does that mean we CANNOT consume it after that date? It seems silly. After all, I eat things all the time that certainly weren't the best they could be. That's what leftovers are.

So the other day I had this orange juice... it said it was "best before" the 19th. Being the 22nd and having to answer to no roomates or others who would question my reasoning, I thought I would taste it. It smelled fine - and tasted fine... so I took the plunge. Well, 20 minutes later I decided to pour another glass. That didn't go so well. I started to get an upset stomach... and thought, "I shouldn't have drank that juice" - and tossed the rest of my glass.

Later that day I the date was mentioned... it's September. I checked back to my carton of OJ... realizing that it expires next month on the 19th. I was suprized to realize that I completely succumbed to a psychosomatic condition. I couldn't drink that OJ only because I thought I must be bad. that label told me what to think.

Now I understand that the FDA is quite strict about how food is labelled. And I supposed there are people out there who prefer to culture their own bacteria - and so "exipred" food to them is just as well as the fresher version. but I DO appreciate the labelling, but when did we get so superior that a few days after the label says it's not "best" we decide its compeltely bad. I think we waste a lot of perfectly good, not best food in this country - and we need to start a revolution! But not with milk... drinking milk after the expriation date is just wrong.