Lobster Man wrote:
> Not feeling well this week, and I got tired of tea and mineral water, so
> I bought some bullion cubes at the store. A hot cup of beef bullion is a
> nice change of pace.
>
> Anyway, when I opened the jar, I was struck by the "Best used by" date
> on the top of the jar. (And the date was only a little over a year in
> the future...) It's not like a cube of mostly salt can really "go bad",
> right?
>
> I assume it's some stupid FDA food freshness requirement. But it still
> struck me as ironic.

It wasn't a "sell by" date, or a date legally required by the FDA. You
said it yourself- "best used by" means just that. It provides the
manufacturer some "control" over the quality of a product in the sense
that if you keep it on hand for 10 years and then complain about the
shriveled up cubes they can say you exceeded the "best used by" date.