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Leftovers and meal prep
All Containers›Shop by use case›Leftovers and meal prep›The date›Month and yearShop all leftovers and meal prep →
The date

Month and year

By Dwight Davis, Founder

On this page14
The blank to be filled in with the month and year.

The format is specified

A "Use by ______" date, the blank to be filled in with the month and year.

So a day is not required

Month and year, which is a coarser resolution than people expect from a date on a food package.

And the chooser is named

Selected by the manufacturer, packer, or distributor. Three possible parties, any of whom may set it.

Which means the date is not set by a rule

It is set by a party, on a basis the rule specifies. The regulation governs the reasoning rather than the number.

The basis is tests or other information

Not tests alone. Or other information, which leaves room for published data and experience rather than requiring a study for every product.

Showing that the formula will meet two criteria until that date

Which is a forward-looking claim, so the date is a prediction supported by evidence.

And the prediction is conditional

Under the conditions of handling, storage, preparation, and use prescribed by label directions. Four kinds of condition, all of them prescribed on the label.

So the label has to carry the conditions too

A date and the directions it depends on, which is why a use by date on its own is incomplete information.

Four conditions is more than storage

Handling, storage, preparation and use. So the date assumes the product will be prepared and used as directed, not just kept as directed.

Which is why a transferred product is outside the premise

Not unlawfully, and nothing here says that. Simply outside the conditions the date was selected for.

And our containers prescribe nothing

A reusable jar carries no directions and no date. The household supplies both, or neither.

And the chooser being the maker is worth noticing

The manufacturer, packer or distributor selects the date, and the same party sets the declared nutrient quantities the first criterion compares against. A conservative declaration buys a longer date.

Which is the honest position for this group

Five of the six leaves are household storage with no label at all, and formula storage is the one where the original label matters.

References

21 CFR 107.20(c) requires on the label of an infant formula a "Use by ______" date, "the blank to be filled in with the month and year selected by the manufacturer, packer, or distributor of the infant formula on the basis of tests or other information showing that the infant formula, until that date, under the conditions of handling, storage, preparation, and use prescribed by label directions, will: (1) when consumed, contain not less than the quantity of each nutrient, as set forth on its label; and (2) otherwise be of an acceptable quality (e.g., pass through an ordinary bottle nipple)." Nothing on these pages states what other federal date labeling requirements exist or do not exist. law.cornell.edu
Written from 21 CFR 107.20(c) and from the catalog as it stood on 19 October 2026. Nothing here says what other federal date labeling requirements exist, how long any leftover keeps, or whether any container is microwave, dishwasher or oven safe: a published temperature range is not one of those statements and only a manufacturer can make them. The temperature range field is published on all 176 containers in this group and takes four values, of which only one, on two containers, spans a freezer and an oven.