What Is Shelf Life?
Every packet in your store is quietly counting down, and only one number on it is the one that matters.
Shelf life is the period a product stays safe and fit to sell under the storage conditions stated on its pack. The maker sets that period, not the regulator. It comes from how the product behaves in storage over time.
How the Period Is Worked Out
Shelf life is a gap between two dates rather than a figure handed to you. India’s import rules define it as the period from the date of manufacture to the best before or expiry, whichever falls first.
How much of that period is left on arrival is the number that matters. Imported food is refused customs clearance with less than 60% of it left, a yardstick worth borrowing for stock that never crossed a border.
What the Label Must Carry
Under the Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) Regulations, 2020, two date declarations are compulsory on most pre-packaged food:
- The date of manufacture or packaging.
- The expiry or use by date.
That second one is not merely information. The regulations define it as the date after which the food shall not be sold or distributed for human consumption.
A short list escapes the expiry declaration: fresh fruit and vegetables, wine and drinks at 10% alcohol or more, vinegar, solid sugars, sugar boiled confectionery, industrial salt and chewing gum. Packs smaller than thirty square centimetres are excused both dates, provided the outer carton carries them.
How precisely each date is written depends on the product. A food with three months or less gets the day, month and year. Anything longer needs only the month and year, with the month spelled in letters rather than a number.
The batch number is another compulsory declaration, usually stamped beside these dates. Our guide to FSSAI food labelling rules covers what else has to appear.
Best Before vs Use By in India
The quality-versus-safety split is real, and the regulations define both terms. What differs in India is which one you have to print.
| Term | Status in India | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Use by | Compulsory | End of the safe period |
| Expiry | Compulsory | The same date, under another name |
| Best before | Optional | End of peak quality, not of safety |
The regulations define “use by” and “expiry” as one and the same and allow “best before” only as optional or additional information, so a pack carrying only a best before date, with no expiry beside it, is not following the rule.
Shelf Life Example
A sweets maker in Tumakuru packs Diwali hampers on 23 September 2026, mixing three products with very different lives.
| Item | Shelf life | Date on it |
|---|---|---|
| Cashew barfi | 21 days | 14 October 2026 |
| Chocolate | 9 months | 23 June 2027 |
| Dry fruit mix | 6 months | 23 March 2027 |
| Hamper | 21 days | 14 October 2026 |
Note: this is an invented example for illustration only. Confirm each product’s declared period with its manufacturer.
The hamper expires with the barfi. For an assorted pack the regulations say the declared shelf life should be that of the shortest-lived thing inside, which is why a box of mostly long-life goods can still have three weeks on it.
Why the Earliest Date Runs Your Store
Stock does not leave in the order it arrived; it should leave in the order it expires. Those match only when every delivery has the same life left, which rarely happens once you buy from two suppliers.
Sorting by nearest date instead of oldest receipt is what keeps a write-off small, and it depends on someone having recorded the date when the stock landed.
The same discipline sits behind kitchen inventory counts and the way raw material inventory is issued to the kitchen.
Running an FSSAI compliance checklist before an inspection is worth the hour, because a missing or wrongly formatted date is the easiest thing for an inspector to spot.
See Which Date Runs Out First
Nobody reads expiry dates off a shelf for fun, so the useful version of this job is a list, not a walk round the store.
For retail businesses, Petpooja Invoice carries Batch & Expiry Tracking, so what is closest to running out is a report rather than a memory.
For restaurants, Petpooja POSS keeps the consumption side visible with item-wise auto deduction and low-stock alerts.
If your nearest expiry lives on a sticker somebody must bend down to read, it will be found late. Have a look at what one month of recorded dates would show you.
Frequently Asked Questions
Use by marks the end of the safe period and has to be on the label. Best before is optional extra information about quality, and FSSAI treats use by and expiry as one and the same date.
No. The 2020 labelling regulations make the date of manufacture or packaging and the expiry or use by date compulsory, and allow best before only as optional or additional information.
The manufacturer sets it from how the product holds up in storage, and for most foods no regulation fixes the number for them. It holds only under the storage conditions printed on the pack, so a period quoted for a cool, dry place does not survive a hot warehouse.
Whatever is shortest inside it. For an assorted pack the declared shelf life has to be that of the product with the earliest date, however long the other items last.
