User:Bluerasberry/Product expiration

Product expiration (also called shelf-life) is the time after which a product is no longer fit for use. Consumers typically judge a product's expiration by reading the expiration date which the product's manufacturer or provider publishes and distributes with the product.

Consumers in different cultures have different attitudes about product expiration. This happens for a range of social reasons. One consequence of this cultural difference is that for various classes of products, consumers in one place might routinely check product expiration dates, while consumers in other places do not.

When marketers and manufacturers wish to indicate that a product should be used by a certain date, they often publish a label on the product or its packaging to indicate its expiration date.

In mass production supply chains, managers for the logistics of product delivery have their own theory and practice of how to ship products to reduce the amount of waste due to product expiration.