Best before vs. use by: what the law says
Use by is a safety date. It is used for foods where eating them after that date poses a genuine health risk — raw meat, soft cheeses, chilled ready meals. The seller is legally responsible for ensuring the food is safe up to and including the use-by date. After it, the food must not be sold.
Best before is a quality date. It tells the consumer that the food is at its best before that date, but it is generally still safe to eat after it — just possibly less fresh, crispy, flavourful or attractive. It is an indication of quality, not a safety cutoff.
For most handmade chocolates, best before is the right choice. A well-formulated ganache that goes off after three weeks does so gradually — it may taste stale or develop fat bloom, but it does not become a food-safety hazard in the same way as raw protein.
When might a chocolate need a use-by date?
Use by becomes relevant if the chocolate contains a high-risk fresh ingredient that is genuinely dangerous past a certain point — for example, a filling that is essentially fresh cream or custard at a very high water activity (above 0.85), kept chilled. Most ambient-stored filled chocolates do not reach this threshold. If you are unsure, discuss with your local Environmental Health Officer.
How to decide on the number of weeks
The shelf life you put on a label should be supported by evidence. Regulatory guidance expects food businesses to be able to justify their date labels. For small producers, that evidence typically comes from one or more of:
- A keeping trial: make a batch, store it in normal conditions (room temperature, away from direct light and heat), and assess it at regular intervals — smell, taste, appearance, texture. Record what you observe and when. Stop when quality noticeably deteriorates. The date you choose should be before that point, with a margin.
- Water-activity estimation: use the known relationship between aw and microbial growth to inform the likely range. A ganache estimated at 0.70 will behave very differently from one at 0.83.
- Laboratory testing: an accredited lab can measure water activity and sometimes conduct shelf-life studies for you. Worth doing if you are scaling up or supplying retail.
- Industry reference data: publications like Beckett’s Industrial Chocolate Manufacture and Use or Callebaut’s technical resources provide aw data and shelf-life ranges for common confectionery types. A chocolate recipe that closely matches a well-studied type can reasonably use that reference.
What a label actually needs
For pre-packed food in the UK, the rules (Food Information to Consumers regulations) require:
- The name of the food
- A list of ingredients (including allergens clearly emphasised)
- Net quantity in grams
- Best before or use-by date
- Storage instructions (especially if they affect shelf life, e.g. “store in a cool, dry place away from strong odours”)
- Name and address of the producer or packer (you)
- Country of origin if required (for most chocolates, not obligatory)
Allergen labelling is the area where small producers most often fall short — milk, nuts, gluten and soya must be clearly flagged, and cross-contamination risks should be noted if relevant.
A practical approach for a small chocolatier
If you are making ganache-centred chocolates for sale at markets or small retail, a reasonable starting process is:
- Estimate the water activity of your recipe using the ChocoX Shelf-Life Predictor or a comparable tool.
- Use the aw estimate to decide roughly what shelf-life range you are in (see our water activity guide).
- Conduct a keeping trial to confirm the estimate holds for your specific recipe and production conditions.
- Set your best-before date conservatively — inside the point at which quality deteriorates, not right at the edge.
- Keep records of your keeping trials and your aw estimates.
If quality deteriorates earlier than expected, revisit the recipe (more glucose syrup, less cream) and repeat the trial. The ChocoX Predictor is useful here: it lets you explore what a small formulation change would do to the predicted aw before you go back to the bench.