Does chocolate have a use-by date?
No, chocolate does not have a use-by date it just has a best-before date. This means it is safe to eat after the best-before date has passed.
Is it safe to eat chocolate after the expiration date?
Chocolate is a product that doesn’t actually have an expiration date. Instead, it has a best before date. These are two very different things. An expiration date, which is actually called a use-by date, is only included for products that are unsafe to eat after a certain period.
Chocolate is safe to eat after its best before date. How long after the best before date you can enjoy chocolate depends on the specific product, and your personal preferences.
Why doesn’t chocolate go bad?
Chocolate doesn’t have water in it, and bacteria needs water to be active and cause harm. That means bacteria can’t survive in chocolate, hence chocolate products do not come with a use-by date. Even if the chocolate has changed in colour or if blooms appear (the little white spots that you sometimes see), it is still safe to eat without risking food poisoning.
How long can you eat chocolate after the expiration date?
Keep in mind that since chocolate is safe to eat after the best before date, this comes down to your own subjective opinion of how the chocolate tastes. The following table is just a rough guide. The best test is to smell and taste the chocolate. If it smells OK to you and tastes fine then you can eat it!
Make sure you store your products in a cupboard or pantry, try and keep them at a consistent temperature and make sure they are properly wrapped with foil if opened.
| Product | Time past ‘best before’ when chocolate should still taste good! | ||
| Quality unlikely to be compromised | Still good, but small chance it may taste a little different | ||
| Milk chocolate | 2 – 4 months | 5 – 8 months | |
| White chocolate | 2 – 4 months | 5 – 8 months | |
| Dark chocolate | 1 year | 2 — 3 years | |
| Chocolate bar with nuts/fruits | 2 – 4 months | 5 – 8 months | |
| Chocolate bar with nougat/caramel/wafer etc | 2 – 4 months | 5 – 8 months | |
| Hot chocolate | 1 year | 1 – 2 years | |
The best-before date varies a lot on chocolate products that you see on the shelf. Similar products can have best-before dates of as little as 6 months right up to 24 months. This is to with stock rotation more than anything else.
Keep in mind that brands are likely to provide shorter best-before dates than necessary to protect themselves. The exact day of the best before should be taken with a pinch of salt. You do not need to throw out your chocolate if it has passed the best before by a few days or a week, for example.
Technically you can eat chocolate at any point after its best-before date, as long as you store it according to the instructions on the packaging. At some point the flavour of the chocolate will change though.
Since chocolate passed its best before is safe to eat, the best test is to smell it and try a little bit of it – if it smells unpleasant and you don’t like the taste then don’t eat it.
There are a number of factors that affect the life of chocolate. These are:
- Whether it is white, milk or dark chocolate (meaning variable milk and sugar content)
- Whether it has anything in it like fruit or nuts
- How it is stored
